UC-NRLF 


Dlb 


UNIVERSITY     OF     ILLINOIS     BULLETIN 

ISSUED  WEEKLY  ^Ct- 

Vol.  XIX  MARCH  27,  1922  ^ 


. 


[Entered  aa  second-class  matter  December  11,  1912,  at  the  post  office  at  Urbana,  Illinois,  vfhufcer  the 
Act  of  August  24,  1912.  Acceptance  for  mailing  at  the  special  rate  of  postage  provided  for  in 
section  1103,  Act  of  October  3,  1917,  authorized  July  31,  1918.] 


ILLINOIS  AGRICULTURAL  POLICY 

A  CONFERENCE 

at  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


January  26  and  27 
1922 


QF  ' 

DNIVEK 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA 


Eugene  Davenport 


PAPERS 
PRESENTED  AT  A  CONFERENCE  ON 

ILLINOIS  AGRICULTURAL  POLICY 


January  26  and  27 
1922 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
URBANA 


EXCHANGf 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY  STATEMENT 7 

I.  A  QUARTER-CENTURY  OF  AGRICULTURAL 
PROGRESS  IN  ILLINOIS:  A  REVIEW  OF 
ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

A  System  of  Permanent  Agriculture 

RALPH  ALLEN 11 

Developments  in  the  Dairy  Industry 

N.  W.  HEPBURN 16 

Developments  in  Horticulture 

J.  C.  BLAIR T 27 

The  Work  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

L.  H.  SMITH 37 

The  Work  of  the  College  of  Agriculture 

FRED  H.  RANKIN.  .  46 


II.     NEWER  PHASES  OF  AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS 

Newer  Problems  in  Soil  Treatment 

FRANK  I.  MANN 56 

Business  Aspects  of  Farming 

CHARLES  A.  EWING 61 

The  Farm  Bureau 

E.  T.  ROBBINS 71 

The  Illinois  Agricultural  Association 

D.  O.  THOMPSON 79 

An  International  Crop  Reporting  Service 

H,  J.  SCONCE 82 

Financing  Farming 

J.  D.  PHILLIPS 87 


III.    AGRICULTURE  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  OTHER 
INTERESTS 


PAGE 

The  Business  of  Farming  in  Some  of  Its  Larger  Aspects 

THOMAS  NIXON  CARVER.  .  91 


The  University  and  the  Farm 

DAVID  KINLEY  .  .  101 


IV.  NEXT  STEPS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  DEVELOP- 
MENT IN  ILLINOIS:  A  PROGRAM  FOR  A 
BETTER  BALANCED  AGRICULTURE 


The  Introduction  of  New  Crops 

C.  L.  MEHARRY..  .111 


Farm  Forestry  in  Illinois 

A.  N.  ABBOTT..  .   120 


Can  Illinois  Come  Back  as  a  Stock  Breeding  Ground  ? 

W.  S.  CORSA..  .  122 


The  Outlook  for  Live  Stock  in  Illinois  Agriculture 

H.  W.  MUMFORD..  .  128 


Roadside  Improvement 

W.  N.  RUDD..  .  136 


The  Country  Home 

J.  V.  STEVENSON 142 


V.  THE  PLACE  OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL  COL- 
LEGE AND  EXPERIMENT  STATION  IN  AN 
ILLINOIS  PROGRAM  FOR  AGRICULTURAL 
DEVELOPMENT 


PAGE 

Physiological  Bases  of  Crop  Production 

W.  L.  BURLISON..  .151 


Economic  Phases  of  Farming 

W.  F.  HANDSCHIN..  .161 


The  Agricultural  Extension  Service 

M.  L.  MOSHER..  .  170 


Some  Next  Steps  in  the  Work  of  the  Agricultural  College 
and  Experiment  Station 
EUGENE  DAVENPORT  .  .  177 


VI.    THE  PROGRAM  187 


INTRODUCTORY  STATEMENT 

^  I*"  HE  retirement  of  Dr.  Eugene  Davenport  from  the  deanship  of 
•*•  the  College  of  Agriculture  at  the  close  of  the  present  University 
year  will  close  an  era  in  the  agricultural  educational  history  in  Illinois. 
His  withdrawal  comes  at  a  time  of  depression  in  the  farming  interests 
of  the  state.  For  both  these  reasons  it  seemed  to  me  well  to  call  a 
conference  of  people  interested  in  agriculture,  to  review  the  agricul- 
tural development  of  the  state  from  the  educational,  scientific,  and 
practical  viewpoints  for  the  twenty-five  years  through  which  Dean 
Davenport  has  served,  and  to  try  to  frame,  if  possible,  the  main  out- 
lines of  a  general  policy  of  agricultural  development  for  the  state  in 
the  next  quarter  of  a  century. 

Accordingly,  a  call  for  such  a  conference  was  issued  on  January 
4,  1922,  as  follows: 

A  CALL  FOR  A  CONFERENCE  ON  ILLINOIS 
AGRICULTURAL  POLICY 

The  present  wide  depression  in  agriculture  has  again  called  the 
attention  of  the  country  sharply  to  the  fundamental  position  of  agri- 
culture in  the  economic  life  of  the  people.  The  condition  of  the 
farmer  through  the  past  twelve  months  has  impressed  upon  people's 
minds  more  firmly  than  ever  the  idea  that  the  prosperity  of  all  of  us 
rests  primarily  upon  the  prosperity  of  those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in 
agriculture. 

The  present  condition  of  depression  in  agriculture,  whatever 
the  immediate  causes  of  that  depression,  enforces  upon  our  attention 
two  important  problems.  One  is  the  early  relief  from  the  prevalent 
economic  pressure  under  which  the  farmers  are  living.  The  other 
is  the  factors  at  work  to  influence  and  give  direction  and  character  to 
American  agriculture  in  the  next  quarter  of  a  century.  While  the 
present  depression  is,  speaking  in  a  general  way,  a  result  of  the  war, 
there  are  reasons  for  thinking  that  it  is  part  of  a  readjustment,  not  only 
of  temporary  conditions,  but  of  conditions  which  in  character  are  more 
permanent.  In  other  words,  American  agriculture  probably  reached 
a  point  within  the  past  decade  at  which  it  was  to  assume  a  different 
character  from  what  it  had  in  the  past  generation.  There  is  ground 
for  the  belief  that  much  of  our  cultivated  land  under  prevalent  prac- 


tises  and  existing  knowledge,  has  reached  the  point  of  diminishing  re- 
turns. It  has  become  a  serious  question  whether  large-scale  agronomic 
farming,  as  hitherto  practised,  is  likely  to  be  as  successful  in  the  future 
on  certain  acres  of  our  land  as  it  has  been  in  the  past  fifty  years.  Re- 
duction of  fertility,  increase  of  population,  changes  in  economic  rela- 
tions of  agricultural  groups  and  classes,  as  well  as  other  influences,  are 
factors  in  deciding  on  this  point.  Our  beef-raising  industry  has 
changed  geographically  and  economically  as  well  as  in  many  of  its 
practises.  Areas  that  a  few  years  ago  were  largely  devoted  to  suc- 
cessful cattle  breeding  are  no  longer  suitable  for  that  purpose.  Old 
farming  practises  whether  in  large-scale  or  small-scale  agriculture,  are 
changing  and  will  undoubtedly  change  more.  We  must  find  answers 
to  such  questions  as  these : 

How  can  farming  be  made  to  pay,  especially  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  the  value  of  farm  land  has  largely  risen  ? 

What  attitude  shall  the  community  take  towards  the  increase  in 
tenant  farming? 

Can  anything  be  done  to  restore  cattle  production  on  a  large 
scale  in  states  like  Illinois,  which  have  lost  their  preeminence  in  that 
industry  ? 

What  effect  is  the  growth  of  cities  having  on  the  size  and  char- 
acter of  nearby  farms? 

How  can  we  insure  the  permanent  retention  of  the  fertility  of 
the  soil  ? 

Is  there  any  system  which  might  be  adopted  whereby  the  adapta- 
tion of  different  crops  to  different  soils  may  be  more  accurately  de- 
termined, and  the  use  of  proper  crops  on  soils  be  insured  ? 

What  can  be  done  to  preserve  the  country  home  ? 

Aside  from  these  questions  affecting  permanent  policy,  we  should 
find  a  method  soon  of  relieving  the  present  pressure  on  the  farmer. 
Agricultural  finance  is  one  of  the  pressing  problems  of  the  day. 

While  the  topics  referred  to  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  and 
many  others  of  like  character  that  will  suggest  themselves  to  the 
reader  may  be  asked  with  reference  to  the  country  as  a  whole,  it  is 
peculiarly  our  duty  in  Illinois  to  ask  them  with  reference  to  Illinois 
agriculture.  It  is  fitting,  too,  that  the  question  should  be  discussed 
at  the  seat  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  the  State  Experiment 
Station  which  the  people  have  established  to  aid  them  in  the  solution 
of  these  and  similar  live  problems.  For  that  reason,  after  conference 


with  my  colleagues  at  the  University  and  others  interested,  I  am  call- 
ing a  conference  of  farmers,  scientists,  and  educators  in  agriculture  to 
be  held  at  the  University  of  Illinois  College  of  Agriculture  on  Thurs- 
day and  Friday,  January  26  and  27,  1922,  to  consider,  as  far  as  time 
will  permit,  the  general  subject  of  the  future  of  agriculture  in  Illinois 
in  the  next  twenty-five  years.  What  should  be  the  agricultural  policy 
of  Illinois  ?  Can  we  decide  in  advance  on  suitable  methods  of  tillage 
for  the  different  soils  of  the  state  ?  Can  we  restore  our  preeminence 
in  beef  cattle  production  ?  What  can  we  do,  to  make  conditions  of 
living  in  the  country  sufficiently  attractive  to  maintain  the  balance  of 
desire  for  country  and  city  life  so  far  as  that  desire  is  determined  by 
general  living  conditions?  What  are  the  relations  of  farming  to  in- 
dustry and  trade? 

These  and  other  questions  will  be  discussed. 

In  the  name  of  the  University,  and  particularly  of  the  College  of 
Agriculture  and  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  I  take  pleasure 
in  inviting  all  citizens  of  the  state  who  are  interested  in  the  matter,  to 
be  present  at  this  conference  and  to  take  part  in  its  discussions. 


At  the  conclusion  of  the  Conference  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  consider  the  propositions  advanced  and  discussed  and  to  report  at 
as  early  a  date  as  compatible  with  thoro  consideration,  whatever  rec- 
ommendations or  proposals  appear  to  the  committee  to  be  helpful  in 
determining  the  general  direction  of  our  agricultural  development. 
The  committee  appointed  consists  of: 

CHARLES  A.  EWING,  Decatur  (Chairman)       A.  N.  ABBOTT,  Morrison 

FRANK  I.  MANN,  Oilman  Jos.  R.  FULKERSON,  Jerseyville 

EUGENE  D.  FUNK,  Shirley  H.  T.  RAINEY,  Carrollton 

W.  S.  CORSA,  White  Hall  J.  V.  STEVENSON,  Streator 

GEORGE  A.  Fox,  Sycamore  HARVEY  J.  SCONCE,  Sidell 

W.  S.  PERRINE,  Centralia  HERBERT  W.  MUMFORD,  Urbana 

W.  N.  RUDD,  Blue  Island  WALTER  F.  HANDSCHIN,  Urbana 

The  papers  presented  at  the  Conference  are  printed  in  this  pam- 
phlet. The  committee's  report  will  be  printed  separately  when  it  is 

received. 

DAVID  KIN  LEY 

President 


A  SYSTEM  OF  PERMANENT  AGRICULTURE 

RALPH  ALLEN,  Delavan 

N  ORDER  to  understand  better  the  system  of  soil  fertility, 
as  advocated  in  Illinois,  one  should  be  somewhat  familiar 
with  the  motives  which  inspired  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins,  its 
originator  and  promulgator.  The  ultimate  goal  toward 
which  Dr.  Hopkins  labored  was  the  solution  of  the  problem 
of  an  unlimited  food  supply  for  man,  even  when  his  num- 
bers were  constantly  increasing.  He  realized  that  the  decadence  of 
empires  and  of  civilization  was  primarily  due  to  underfed,  underde- 
veloped peoples,  caused  by  the  depletion  of  the  soil's  power  to  produce 
sufficient  food ;  and  that  the  powerful  people  of  the  earth  were  those 
only  who  lived  upon  the  new  and  unexhausted  lands. 

The  progressive  movement  of  civilized  man  has  been  westward — 
new  lands  have  been  occupied  and  exhausted  until  the  circle  of  ex- 
ploitation of  the  earth  is  about  completed.  Dr.  Hopkins  realized  that 
the  decadence  of  man  as  a  civilized  race  must  therefore  follow,  unless 
a  system  of  soil  renewal  could  be  discovered  whereby  the  effect  of 
man's  occupancy  of  the  land  could  be  reversed  from  soil  destroying  to 
soil  building.  In  this  process  he  knew  that  the  farmer  must  be  the 
active  agent ;  therefore  the  farmer  must  receive  the  first  consideration. 
The  farmer  must  prosper.  He  must  realize  a  compensation  for  his 
labor  comparable  with  that  of  other  industries.  His  business  should 
pay  sufficiently  to  bring  back  quickly  the  money  paid  out  in  the  pro- 
cess of  renewing  the  soil.  In  other  words,  agriculture  to  exist  must 
be  profitable.  Dr.  Hopkins'  object,  therefore,  was  to  bring  about  a 
permanent  human  food  supply,  at  the  same  time  looking  out  for  the 
well-being  and  profit  of  the  farmer. 

A  SYSTEM  THAT  Is  PROFITABLE 

Before  the  time  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  soil  investigators  had  learned 
many  things  relating  to  the  use  of  chemical  elements  in  producing  the 
growth  of  plants.  But  to  secure  the  benefits  of  this  knowledge  in 
such  a  wholesale  way  that  all  farmers  could  practise  the  system  and 
keep  the  cost  of  production  below  the  money  value  of  the  increase  in 
the  crop,  it  was  necessary  to  discard  every  expenditure  possible.  Dr. 
Hopkins  realized  that  the  success  of  a  system  of  agriculture  which 
would  produce  an  abundance  of  food  for  all  would  depend  upon  free- 
dom from  competition  between  farmers  for  their  supply  of  the 

11 


12  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

elements  of  fertility.  He  therefore  incorporated  into  the  Illinois  Sys- 
tem of  Permanent  Agriculture  the  use  of  such  natural  forces  and  re- 
sources as  are  available,  free  and  equally  to  all  farmers  alike,  and 
which  cost  nothing ;  instead  of  resorting  to  the  costly  processes  of  fer- 
tilizer manufacture  in  order  to  accomplish  this  purpose.  This  principle 
is  one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent 
agriculture.  For  example,  in  pursuance  of  this  theory,  he  used  bac- 
teria to  get  the  soil  nitrogen,  discarding  the  commercially  prepared, 
highly  expensive  forms  of  nitrogen.  He  used  soil  acids  of  decompo- 
sition to  render  soluble  the  insoluble  phosphates  in  place  of  those  com- 
mercially and  more  expensively  prepared.  The  mineral  elements 
needed  for  the  soil  he  secured  as  nearly  as  possible  in  their  most  natural 
forms;  as,  for  example,  raw  rock  phosphate,  prepared  only  by  being 
finely  ground ;  and  lime,  used  in  the  form  of  coarsely  ground  limestone. 

FERTILITY  Is  MAINTAINED  AND  INCREASED 

He  recognized  the  fact  that  every  crop  grown  takes  something 
out  of  the  soil,  and  no  matter  how  great  the  resources  of  fertility  may 
be,  unless  that  which  is  taken  out  is  returned,  the  soil  will  eventually 
be  exhausted.  On  the  other  hand,  he  saw  that  with  a  system  of  soil 
treatment  which  would  provide  for  the  return  to  the  soil  of  those 
elements  which  are  removed,  the  fertility  of  soil  so  treated  could  be 
maintained  indefinitely;  and  in  case  more  was  returned  to  the  soil 
than  was  taken  from  it,  such  soil  would  steadily  increase  in 
productiveness. 

Still  further,  he  realized  that  lands  naturally  barren,  or  lands 
long  since  exhausted  by  farming  and  abandoned  by  man,  could  be  made 
once  more  productive  by  the  same  process.  A  very  distinctive  feature 
of  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  soil  fertility  is  that  it  builds  up 
the  soil  to  a  permanently  higher  state  of  fertility.  We  may  take,  by 
way  of  example,  the  practise  of  applying  to  the  brown  silt  loam  type 
of  soil,  which  contains  twelve  hundred  pounds  of  phosphorus  per  acre 
in  the  stratum  turned  by  the  plow,  one  ton  per  acre  of  fourteen  per 
cent  raw  rock  phosphate  during  each  five-year  rotation.  After  de- 
ducting the  loss  of  phosphorus  occasioned  by  taking  off  two  sixty- 
bushel  crops  of  corn,  a  sixty-bushel  crop  of  oats,  a  thirty-bushel  crop 
of  wheat,  and  a  crop  of  two  tons  of  clover,  there  would  be  accumulated 
in  the  soil  at  the  end  of  four  rotations,  or  twenty  years,  a  quantity  of 
unused  phosphorus  sufficient  to  build  up  the  phosphorus  content  of  the 
soil  to  well  above  the  standard  for  fertile  soils,  which  is  two  thousand 
pounds  per  acre.  This  is  in  contradistinction  to  other  systems  of  fer- 


PERMANENT  AGRICULTURE  13 

tilizing  the  soil  which  have  in  view  only  the  effect  upon  the  immediate 
crop  and  which  commonly  apply  less  phosphorus  per  acre  than  the 
crops  remove  during  each  rotation ;  with  the  result  that  at  the  end  of 
the  twenty-year  period,  there  is  a  depletion  instead  of  an  increase  in 
the  total  phosphorus  content  of  the  soil. 

DIFFERENCES  IN  SOILS  RECOGNIZED 

Another  characteristic  feature  of  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent 
soil  fertility  is  that  it  recognizes  the  differences  in  soils.  It  takes  into 
consideration  the  fact  that  they  differ  in  physical  character  and  in 
chemical  composition,  and  that  their  treatment  must  vary  according 
to  these  differences.  In  the  beginning  of  Dr.  Hopkins'  work,  there- 
fore, the  necessity  for  a  thoro  knowledge  of  all  the  soils  of  the  state 
was  apparent,  and  a  survey  of  the  soil  types  of  the  state  was  com- 
menced and  is  still  going  on.  Among  other  things,  this  survey  aims 
to  determine  what  the  character  of  these  types  is,  both  chemical  and 
physical ;  what  constitutes  the  differences  between  one  type  and  an- 
other ;  where  the  different  kinds  of  soils  are  to  be  found,  together  with 
their  exact  location  and  boundaries. 

Realizing  still  further  the  necesssity  of  recognizing  the  differences 
in  soils,  experimental  fields  were  established  and  are  still  maintained 
by  the  Experiment  Station  on  varying  types  of  soils,  in  order  to  test 
out,  by  means  of  growing  crops,  the  different  systems  of  soil  treatment, 
and  to  learn  how  the  soils  respond  in  crop  production  to  applications 
of  different  elements  of  plant  food.  These  fields  are,  by  long-time 
leases  or  by  deed,  devoted  permanently  to  these  soil  experiments;  so 
that  with  the  lapse  of  time,  the  effect  of  the  system  on  the  permanency 
of  the  improvement  in  the  soil  will  become  known. 

Two  systems  of  farming  have  been  in  operation  on  many  of  the 
experiment  fields.  One  is  called  the  live-stock  system  and  the  other, 
the  grain  system.  The  object  of  maintaining  these  two  systems  is  not 
to  determine  whether  one  is  better  than  the  other,  but  rather  to  de- 
termine ways  to  maintain  the  fertility  of  the  soil  under  either  system. 
The  grain  system  is  applicable  to  the  great  grain-growing  areas,  where 
almost  all  the  grain  is  sold  from  the  farm,  none  being  fed  to  live  stock 
and  no  manure  made.  It  consists  in  substituting  for  manure  the  use 
of  leguminous  catch  crops,  all  crop  residues  being  plowed  under.  The 
live-stock  system  includes  the  use  of  manure  in  such  amounts  as  can  be 
made  from  the  crops  grown.  Under  either  system,  the  crop  rotation 
and  the  supply  of  minerals  are  the  same,  the  humus  and  nitrogen  of  the 
soil  are  maintained  in  about  the  same  amounts,  and  the  crop  yields 
obtained  are  also  the  same. 


14  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

BASED  ON  EXTENSIVE  INVESTIGATIONS 

The  extensive  organization  for  soil  investigations  put  into  opera- 
tion by  the  Illinois  Experiment  Station  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
Hopkins  is  the  most  extensive  of  any  that  has  ever  been  operated 
and  should  be  continued.  The  soil  survey  should  be  completed  as 
rapidly  as  possible  while  there  is  yet  time  to  complete  it  under  the 
present  direction,  not  only  in  order  to  carry  out  the  present  standard 
of  detail  and  accuracy  but  to  give  it  that  uniformity  of  classification 
which  can  best  be  attained  in  work  of  this  kind  when  it  is  done  by  the 
same  individual.  I  would  recommend  that  the  soil  experiment  fields 
be  fully  continued,  for  the  longer  they  are  operated,  the  greater  is  the 
worth  of  the  results.  New  and  unforeseen  results  and  problems  are 
appearing  in  the  long-time  operated  fields,  which  did  not  show  earlier. 
These  fields,  which  are  also  used  as  demonstration  fields  to  show  the 
effects  of  soil  treatment  on  crop  production  to  farmers,  are  visited  an- 
nually by  many  farmers  and  landowners.  A  community  interest  in 
them  has  already  developed,  and  I  believe  the  people  would  resent 
anything  which  endangered  their  continuance. 

A  PERMANENT  AND  STEADY  FOOD  SUPPLY 

To  sum  it  all  up:  The  thing  which  distinguishes  the  Illinois 
System  of  Permanent  Agriculture  is  its  object ;  which  is  to  bring  about 
a  permanent  and  steadily  increasing  human  food  supply,  limited  more 
by  human  labor  than  by  earth's  resources.  The  one  condition  is  that 
the  system  must  be  profitable  as  a  business,  for  if  agriculture  cannot 
prosper  it  cannot  continue.  The  system  is  distinctive  in  that  it  may 
be  practised  equally  by  all  farmers,  with  little  competition  between 
one  farmer  and  another.  As  far  as  possible,  it  displaces  costly  human 
effort  in  the  form  of  commercial  fertilizers  by  using  instead  the  free- 
to-all  natural  forces  and  resources.  It  solves  the  problem  of  treat- 
ment specifically  for  each  and  every  type  of  soil.  It  provides  in  a 
practical  way  for  the  return  to  the  soil  of  each  of  the  elements  of  plant 
food  taken  from  it  by  cropping  or  by  leaching,  and  in  such  a  generous 
way  that  more  is  actually  given  back  than  is  taken  out,  so  that  the 
final  replenishment  of  the  earth's  soils  is  assured.  In  short,  the  sys- 
tem builds  up  the  soil.  It  brings  back  again  to  profitable  productive- 
ness lands  long  since  barren  and  abandoned ;  and  it  shows  the  way  by 
which  all  lands  that  can  be  cultivated  may,  as  time  goes  on,  become 
capable  of  producing  more  and  more  food. 


PERMANENT  AGRICULTURE  15 

DOCTOR  HOPKINS'  LIFE  WORK 

The  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  human  food  supply  is  the  cul- 
mination of  Dr.  Hopkins'  life  work.  It  is  a  thing  complete  in  itself. 
I  liken  it  to  the  discovery  by  Columbus  of  a  new  continent :  the  dis- 
covery was  complete  in  the  first  voyage,  others  could  develop  his  find- 
ings. So  Dr.  Hopkins'  great  life  work  was  complete  when  he  devised 
the  system  of  agriculture  which  showed  the  way  to  change  the  habit 
of  man  from  soil  ruin  to  soil  building;  but  the  development  of  this 
great  work,  like  that  of  the  discovery  by  Columbus,  will  take  cen- 
turies. 

It  is  almost  impossible  for  me  to  think  of  the  Illinois  system  of 
permanent  agriculture  without  continually  having  in  mind  the  per- 
sonality of  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins,  its  author;  and  I  have  referred  to 
him  in  this  paper  frequently.  There  were  others  who  were  intimately 
associated  with  him  and  who  gave  essential  help  in  the  development 
of  this  soil  system.  Two  of  these  were  with  him  so  long  and  were  so 
essential  to  the  success  of  his  plans  that  I  feel  I  should  mention  them. 
In  writing  this,  I  speak  from  personal  knowledge  of  the  relationship 
existing  between  Dr.  Hopkins  and  them.  The  first,  Professor  J.  G. 
M osier,  has  charge  of  the  soil  survey ;  and  it  was  his  skill  in  soil  class- 
ification and  accuracy  of  work  that  achieved  the  reliability  of  the 
survey,  without  which  the  survey  would  have  had  little  value.  The 
second,  Dr.  Eugene  Davenport,  took  an  active  and  essential  part  in 
the  development  of  the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  agriculture;  and 
his  influence  pervaded  every  feature  of  Dr.  Hopkins'  work.  Primarily 
a  soil  student,  thoroly  informed  in  the  soil  literature  of  the  day,  having 
already  commenced  the  system  of  soil  investigations  in  Illinois  by 
laying  out  a  complete  system  of  soil  experiments  at  the  University  Ex- 
periment Station  and  in  the  southern  part  of  the  state,  Dr.  Davenport 
was  eminently  prepared  to  cooperate  through  the  whole  course  of  Dr. 
Hopkins'  investigations.  This  relationship  amounted  really  to  in- 
terdependence and,  it  seems  to  me,  was  essential  to  the  formation  of 
the  Illinois  system  of  permanent  agriculture. 

Dr.  Hopkins'  discovery  stands  out  as  a  distinct  endeavor.  It 
was  new,  unheard  of,  unthought  of.  He  was  the  first  to  call  the 
world's  attention  to  the  thought  of  safeguarding  and  making  a  plan 
for  the  permanent  food  supply  through  the  conservation  of  the  soil. 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  THE   DAIRY  INDUSTRY 

N.  W.  HEPBURN,  Peorla 

N  THE  field  of  dairy  husbandry  we  find  a  natural  division 
occurring  between  production,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  dairy  products,  on  the  other.  The 
two  are  so  interdependent,  however,  that  any  review  of  the 
development  of  dairying  would  not  be  complete  without 
considering  both  phases  of  the  industry.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  point  out  the  progress,  either  in  the  production  or 
the  manufacture  and  traffic  in  dairy  products  during  the  past  twenty- 
five  years,  without  first  going  back  into  the  period  just  preceding  the 
time  in  question. 

It  was  only  natural  that  Illinois  should,  in  the  early  days,  de- 
velop as  a  grazing  state.  Her  almost  boundless  prairies,  rich  in  native 
grasses,  furnished  ideal  forage  for  cattle  and  sheep.  With  a  scanty 
population,  there  was  no  particular  demand  for  milk  or  butter  or 
cheese,  except  to  satisfy  the  individual  needs  of  the  family.  With  the 
increased  production  of  grains,  particularly  corn,  it  was  only  another 
step  to  feed  these  grains  to  live  stock  to  fatten  them  for  market.  And 
thus  was  built  up  the  system  of  feeding  and  fattening  animals,  many 
of  which  were  raised  on  the  ranches  farther  west.  It  was  not  until 
1855-1860,  with  the  opening  of  a  market  for  whole  milk  in  Chicago, 
that  there  was  any  great  stimulus  toward  the  production  of  dairy  pro- 
ducts in  Illinois.  Since  that  time,  the  development  Has  been  rapid. 
Broadly  speaking,  we  can  classify  producers  under  two  heads.  The 
first  group  includes  those  farmers  who  derive  their  major  source  of  in- 
come from  the  sale  of  dairy  products ;  the  product  which  they  produce 
is  for  the  most  part  whole  milk,  and  they  are  located  generally  in  close 
groups  around  the  larger  cities.  Over  against  this  group  is  one  which 
is  much  more  widely  distributed,  and  which  derives  its  revenue  prin- 
cipally from  the  sale  of  cream;  in  this  group  dairying  constitutes 
merely  an  important  side  line.  The  development  in  these  two  groups 
has  been  simultaneous,  tho  the  factors  causing  the  growth  have  been 
somewhat  different. 

FACTORS  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  PRODUCTION 

In  a  general  way  we  may  say  that  four  factors  have  been  largely 
responsible  for  the  development  of  production.  They  are:  first,  the 
introduction  and  utilization  of  the  silo ;  second,  the  centrifugal  cream 

16 


THE  DAIRY  INDUSTRY  17 

separator;  third,  the  discovery  of  a  simple  test  for  fat  in  milk;  and 
fourth,  better  and  more  rapid  methods  of  transportation,  together 
with  the  development  of  refrigeration. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  first  silo  in  Illinois,  and  indeed 
in  the  United  States,  so  far  as  we  have  records  to  show,  was  built  by 
Sidney  Hatch,  of  Spring  Grove,  in  1873.  The  real  development  of 
the  silo,  however,  has  occurred  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 
We  have  now  come  to  regard  the  silo  and  the  use  of  silage  as  so 
important  in  economical  milk  production  that  few  dairymen  indeed 
would  attempt  to  produce  milk  without  them.  DeLaval,  when  he 
applied  the  principle  of  centrifugal  force  to  the  separation  of  fat  from 
the  other  constituents  of  milk,  was  truly  a  benefactor  to  the  small 
farmer  who  was  then  producing  butter  as  a  side  line.  Until  the  dis- 
covery of  the  "Babcock  test"  for  fat  in  milk,  there  never  had  been  a 
satisfactory  basis  for  establishing  the  selling  price  of  that  product. 
With  the  introduction  and  general  use  of  this  simple  test  it  became 
possible  to  differentiate  between  milk  carrying  different  percentages  of 
fat.  This  gave  a  measure  of  value  which  had  hitherto  been  impossible. 
It  tended  to  stabilize  the  market,  and  gave  a  confidence  to  the  producer 
which  he  had  not  felt  before.  Furthermore,  it  gave  him  an  oppor- 
tunity to  measure  the  production  of  his  cows  and  to  get  production 
over  to  more  nearly  a  business  basis.  The  dairyman  was  keen  to  see 
the  advantage  of  knowing  the  production  of  each  cow  in  his  herd. 
This  in  turn  led  to  the  development  of  cow-testing  associations ;  which 
have  shown  a  marked  growth  during  the  last  ten  or  a  dozen  years. 
In  fact,  from  one  cow-testing  association  in  1910  which  tested  about 
three  hundred  cows,  we  have  gone  to  twenty-six  associations  in  1922, 
which  have  tested  nearly  eleven  thousand  cows.  Undoubtedly  the 
fat  test  for  milk  has  been  a  big  factor  in  the  development  of  production. 

Better  and  more  rapid  methods  of  transportation,  together  with 
the  use  of  refrigerator  cars,  have  materially  widened  the  zone  of 
whole-milk  production.  In  fact  it  is  now  possible  to  deliver  fluid  milk 
on  the  central  market  over  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles  in  as 
good  condition  as  it  would  have  been  delivered  in  one-tenth  that  dis- 
tance forty  years  ago.  Indeed  it  is  reported  that  during  a  recent  milk 
strike  in  the  St.  Louis  region,  milk  was  shipped  in  considerable  quan- 
tity from  the  state  of  Michigan  and  arrived  in  good  condition.  The 
same  development  in  transportation  has  aided  the  cream  producer,  and 
has  made  possible  the  establishment  of  the  large  centralizers  for  the 
manufacture  of  this  cream  into  butter. 


18  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

Finally,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  discuss  the  question  of  pro- 
duction during  the  past  twenty-five  years  without  making  mention 
of  the  mechanical  milker.  The  last  quarter  of  a  century  has  seen 
the  development  of  the  milking  machine  from  its  merest  beginning  to 
its  present  extended  use.  There  may  be  some  question  as  to  how 
much  machine  milking  has  stimulated  production,  and  there  may  be 
some  question  now  as  to  its  ultimate  success,  but  certain  it  is  that  it  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  production  and  should  receive  a  great  deal 
of  attention  in  the  years  to  come. 

DAIRY  PRODUCTS 

In  Illinois  the  manufacture  and  traffic  in  dairy  products  is  now 
less  than  seventy-five  years  old.  Prior  to  1850  little  or  no  attention 
was  given  to  any  form  of  dairying.  Butter-making  at  that  time  was 
considered  one  of  the  household  duties,  carried  on  principally  to  supply 
the  family  needs  for  butter,  the  excess  being  taken  to  the  store  for 
what  was  termed  in  those  days  "store  pay."  This  resulted  in  the 
accumulation  of  miscellaneous  lots  of  butter  of  inferior  quality,  which 
was  packed  in  boxes  or  barrels  and  sold  in  the  East  as  Western  butter. 
Thus,  in  the  early  days  the  Middle  West  established  a  reputation  for 
inferior  dairy  products,  which  it  took  years  to  overcome. 

Naturally,  as  soon  as  more  cows  were  kept  than  were  needed  to 
supply  home  demands,  one  of  the  first  forms  of  commercializing  the 
industry  was  that  of  selling  whole  milk.  This  branch  of  the  industry 
may  be  said  to  have  begun  in  1852,  when  P.  H.  Smith,  of  Elgin,  took 
one  eight-gallon  can  of  milk  to  the  Northwestern  station  and  shipped 
it  to  the  old  City  Hotel  in  Chicago.  From  that  time  on  until  now 
the  industry  has  grown  until  we  could  not  measure  the  calamity  that 
would  result  if  the  supply  of  thousands  of  such  cans  were  shut  off 
from  the  city  of  Chicago  for  a  single  day. 

In  1877  the  Chicago  Journal  published  the  following  article; 
which  not  only  shows  the  development  of  the  city  milk  business  but 
also  gives  the  public  view  of  the  business  at  that  time : 

The  item  of  milk  for  daily  consumption  in  a  city  like  Chicago  is  some- 
thing enormous.  This  supply  must  come  from  the  rural  districts,  and  within 
a  limited  range,  as  it  it  not  found  desirable  to  transport  the  fluid  too  great  a 
distance.  Coming  pure  from  the  farms,  it  might  become  butter  if  indulged 
with  too  long  a  ride.  The  great  bulk  of  the  supply  for  Chicago  comes  from 
Cook,  DuPage,  Kane  and  McHenry  counties,  the  famous  Fox  River  valley 
furnishing  three-fourths.  Throughout  these  counties  are  hundreds  of  splendid 


THE  DAIRY  INDUSTRY  19 

farms  entirely  devoted  to  dairying,  and  the  milk  is  either  shipped  to  Chicago 
per  rail  or  sold  to  the  numerous  factories  where  it  is  manufactured  into  butter 
and  cheese. 

About  the  year  1860  the  number  of  dairy  cows  kept  had  in- 
creased to  such  an  extent  that  more  milk  was  produced  than  could  be 
handled  as  such,  and  with  this  oversupply  came  the  temporary  rise  of 
the  cheese  industry  in  Illinois.  The  cooperative  system  was  soon 
inaugurated,  and  instead  of  the  manufacturer  looking  for  a  purchaser, 
the  purchaser  came  to  the  manufacturer.  The  Elgin  Board  of  Trade 
was  established  in  1872,  where  purchaser  and  producer  could  meet 
on  middle  ground. 

The  rivalry  between  the  factories  as  to  the  price  they  would  pay 
for  milk  led  to  the  practise  of  taking  off  a  little  cream.  Another 
dealer,  in  order  to  meet  this  kind  of  competition,  would  dip  off  a  little 
more;  and  so  on.  They  added  the  buttermilk,  cooked  very  slightly, 
salted  but  little,  and  hurried  up  the  curing  as  fast  as  possible.  The 
dealers  soon  began  to  complain  and  there  was  no  longer  the  great  de- 
mand for  Illinois  cheese.  The  reputation  of  Illinois  cheese  was  gone. 
In  1865  Illinois  had  seventeen  cheese  factories;  this  number  had  in- 
creased to  forty-six  in  1870.  By  1890  many  factories  were  engaged 
in  the  manufacture  of  filled  cheese,  which  increased  rapidly  until 
about  1896,  when  a  law  was  passed  prohibiting  filled  cheese.  Within 
a  few  months  Illinois  dropped  almost  to  the  bottom  as  a  cheese  pro- 
ducing state;  and  today  there  are  only  about  fifteen  factories  making 
cheese. 

Following  closely  on  the  fall  of  the  cheese  industry  we  read  of 
the  development  of  the  creamery  industry;  which,  in  the  main,  is 
familiar  to  most  of  you.  About  1870  the  matter  of  establishing  a 
creamery  in  Elgin  began  to  be  discussed,  and  it  was  Dr.  Joseph  Tefft, 
of  Elgin,  who  was  instrumental  in  establishing  the  first  butter  factory 
west  of  the  Lakes.  It  was  here,  in  a  factory  superintended  by  J.  H. 
Wanzer,  with  the  help  of  some  of  the  stockholders'  wives,  that  the 
first  creamery  butter  west  of  the  Lakes  was  made.  The  second  season 
this  factory  made  80,000  pounds  of  butter.  For  a  time  many  factories 
made  both  butter  and  cheese;  and  even  now  we  find,  scattered  over 
the  state,  creameries  which  were  originally  designed  for  the  dual  pur- 
pose of  manufacturing  both  cheese  and  butter.  The  second  creamery 
was  probably  that  of  I.  A.  Bois,  of  Marengo.  Thus  the  industry  de- 
veloped until  in  1883  there  were  about  four  hundred  factories.  In 
1885  one  of  the  first  creameries  opened  in  southern  Illinois  at  Sparta. 
From  this  time  on,  the  industry  grew  rapidly  until  1898,  at  which 


20  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

time  there  were  over  five  hundred  factories  in  Illinois.  Many  of 
these  so-called  cooperative  creameries  were  established  through  pro- 
motive  schemes  directed  largely  by  creamery  supply  houses.  Ninety 
per  cent  of  these  plants  were  financial  failures. 

DEVELOPMENT  IN  THE  FIELD  OF  DAIRY  PRODUCTS  DURING 
THE  PAST  TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS 

With  this  background  in  mind,  the  developments  in  the  field  of 
dairy  products  during  the  past  twenty-five  years  constitute  a  history  of 
marvelous  growth  and  achievement,  made  possible  through  the  com- 
bined effort  of  business  acumen  and  scientific  achievement.  Today, 
under  the  list  of  dairy  products  we  include :  whole  milk  for  drinking 
purposes,  condensed  milk,  dry  milk,  ice  cream,  butter  and  cheese,  with 
the  respective  accessory  products  or  by-products,  under  which  may  be 
included  perishable  soft  cheese,  dry  and  condensed  buttermilk,  milk 
drinks,  whey,  casein,  and  casein  products.  In  the  period  just  de- 
scribed, these  products  were  considered  as  isolated  units  of  the  industry, 
having  little  or  nothing  in  common  so  far  as  their  manufacture  and 
distribution  was  concerned.  Today  we  think  of  them  and  deal  with 
them  in  terms  of  their  respective  relationship,  determined  largely  by 
their  relative  perishability.  For  instance,  if  we  take  a  large  consum- 
ing center  like  Chicago  and  make  a  study  of  the  dairy  activity  sur- 
rounding it,  we  find  first  a  zone  producing  milk  for  city  consumption. 
Just  outside  this  zone  and  somewhat  overlapping  it,  we  find  a  zone  in 
which  the  milk  produced,  together  with  a  portion  of  the  surplus  milk 
from  the  inner  zone,  goes  into  condensed  milk,  powdered  milk,  and 
ice  cream.  Farther  out,  with  poorer  transportation  facilities,  yet 
situated  in  the  region  of  good  production,  we  find  the  cheese  factory; 
and  still  farther  out,  in  the  non-dairy  regions,  we  find  the  cream  pro- 
duced for  butter-making  purposes.  During  the  period  under  discus- 
sion, these  zones  have  been  gradually  pushed  out  to  fill  the  require- 
ments of  a  milk  supply  for  our  large  cities,  one  effect  of  which  has 
been  to  crowd  the  cheese  industry  out  of  Illinois  territory. 

CITY  MILK 

The  providing  of  our  consuming  centers  with  milk  for  direct 
consumption  has  grown,  during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  to  be  a 
tremendous  industry.  From  the  small  beginning  described  earlier  in 
this  paper  as  P.  H.  Smith's  efforts  to  furnish  milk  to  the  growing  city 
of  Chicago,  the  industry  has  grown  to  a  point  where  the  Nation's  milk 


THE  DAIRY  INDUSTRY  21 

bills  last  year  totaled  about  one  billion  dollars.  During  the  period 
under  discussion  this  growth  represents  an  effort  to  keep  pace  with  the 
growing  population  in  our  consuming  centers,  rather  than  any  marked 
increase  in  our  per  capita  consumption. 

Accompanying  this  enormous  growth  in  the  volume  of  business, 
there  has  been  a  corresponding  improvement  in  the  handling  of  the 
product.  We  have  passed  from  the  stage  of  so-called  "dip  milk"  to 
a  highly  specialized  system,  extending  from  the  farm  to  the  consumer, 
under  which  a  thoroly  safe,  pasteurized  product  is  delivered  to  the 
consumer's  door  in  an  original  sterilized  container.  Thus  the  city 
milk  business  has  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the  street  peddler  into 
the  hands  of  large  organizations  who  may  justly  be  called  "specialists" 
in  this  branch  of  the  dairy  industry.  These  advances  have  been  made 
possible  largely  through  the  joint  effort  and  cooperation  of  the  pro- 
ducer, the  business  man,  the  scientist,  boards  of  health,  and  machinery 
men.  Over  twenty  years  ago  the  scientist  pointed  out  the  relation 
between  public  health  problems  and  a  city's  milk  supply,  and  today 
our  whole  program  of  milk  distribution  is  built  around  the  one  idea 
that  the  consumer  must  have  an  adequate  supply  of  healthful  milk  at  a 
reasonable  price.  The  real  milk  man  has  been  shaping  his  business 
with  this  one  idea  in  mind.  His  efforts  are  represented :  First,  by 
consistent  field  work  in  the  country  looking  toward  an  improved  sup- 
ply. Here  he  has  been  assisted  materially  by  the  scientist,  who  has 
furnished  not  only  the  standards  but  also  the  means  for  measuring  the 
quality,  so  far  as  this  can  be  done.  Second,  nothing  that  modern 
skill  or  science  could  suggest  has  been  left  undone  in  the  plant  toward 
the  turning  out  of  the  very  highest  quality  product.  In  fact,  there 
is  no  food  today  surrounded  by  so  many  precautions  as  is  our  modern 
milk  supply.  Probably  no  greater  single  development  for  the  handling 
of  milk  has  been  accomplished  than  the  invention  of  our  modern  equip- 
ment for  perfect  pasteurization, — a  process  almost  universally  recog- 
nized as  a  necessity  for  a  safe  milk  supply.  Here  we  might  justly 
add  that  the  machinery  firms  have  spent  millions  of  dollars  in  the  de- 
velopment of  machines,  all  of  which  have  been  periodically  junked  and 
replaced  by  something  more  efficient;  until  the  operation  of  putting 
the  vast  quantity  of  milk  through  a  city  plant  today,  from  the  re- 
ceiving to  the  delivery  door,  represents  almost  none  of  what  might 
be  called  "hand  labor."  Another  branch  of  this  same  industry,  grow- 
ing largely  under  the  direction  of  the  scientist,  is  the  certified  milk 
industry,  and  while  I  do  not  wish  to  dwell  on  this  phase  of  the  subject, 
it  is  worthy  of  comment  that  the  first  certified  milk  of  which  we  have 


22  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

any  record  was  that  which  H.  B.  Gurler,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  dairy- 
ing, shipped  from  this  state  to  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1900. 

Like  all  other  developments,  the  supplying  of  a  city  with  the 
proper  kind  of  milk  has  met  with  its  share  of  opposition,  from  unin- 
formed doctors,  civic  organizations,  health  officials,  and  politicians; 
but  out  of  it  all  we  are  able  to  define  quite  clearly  the  principles  upon 
which  a  sound  milk  supply  should  be  based. 

The  serviceability  of  these  improvements  may  be  summed  up 
briefly  by  saying  that  milk  is  today  one  of  the  cheapest  and  one  of  the 
most  accessible  of  foods  for  the  city  dweller,  in  spite  of  its  perishable 
character ;  and  an  epidemic  traceable  to  milk  is  almost  unheard  of. 

THE  ICE  CREAM  INDUSTRY 

The  ice  cream  industry  has  made  its  growth  in  Illinois  as  well 
as  in  the  United  States  practically  within  the  last  fifteen  years,  during 
which  time  it  has  passed  from  the  one-horse  tub  freezer  stage  to  an 
industry  as  highly  specialized  as  the  milk  industry  itself.  Earlier 
in  this  paper  it  was  suggested  that  for  the  successful  operation  of 
plants  making  dairy  products,  there  is  a  necessary  interdependence, 
brought  about  by  the  fact  that  the  milk  supply  is  irregular,  yielding  a 
tremendous  flush  of  milk  during  the  spring  months,  with  a  corres- 
ponding shortage  in  the  winter  months.  The  development  of  the  ice 
cream  business,  and  the  condensed  and  dry-milk  industry  has  done 
much  toward  equalizing  this  situation ;  thereby  bringing  a  more  uni- 
form price  to  the  producers  and  enabling  the  manufacturer  to  handle 
the  product  of  the  dairy  during  the  surplus  season  with  less  loss  than 
was  occasioned  during  the  days  when  all  surplus  was  skimmed  for 
butter-making  and  the  skim  milk  returned  to  the  farm,  if  possible,  or 
run  into  the  sewer.  Inventions  which  have  done  much  toward 
equalization  along  this  line  are  the  emulser,  the  homogonizer  and  the 
viscolizer.  These  machines  are  constructed  for  the  purpose  of  emul- 
sifying the  fat  of  butter  with  fresh  skim  milk  or  dissolved  dry  milk 
to  again  form  cream.  This  process  permits  the  temporary  storing  of 
the  valuable  constituents  of  milk  in  a  less  bulky  form  until  such  time 
as  they  are  needed. 

Within  the  last  five  years  the  ice  cream  industry  has  passed  from 
the  ranks  of  a  confection  to  the  ranks  of  a  food  product.  This  im- 
portant transition  has  come  about  largely  through  the  combined  efforts 
of  the  manufacturer,  the  scientist,  and  the  law-maker;  which  have 
resulted  in  a  standardized  wholesome  product,  well  deserving  of  the 
place  which  it  now  holds  in  the  eyes  of  the  consumer. 


THE  DAIRY  INDUSTRY  23 

CONDENSED  AND  POWDERED  MILK 

The  condensed  milk  industry  in  this  state  dates  back  to  1865. 
Long  ago  the  pioneer  dairyman  recognized  the  necessity  for  some 
means  of  converting  a  portion  of  our  spring  surplus  of  milk  into 
some  product  more  valuable  than  either  butter  or  cheese.  The  answer 
to  this  demand  was  found  in  the  condensing  process.  This  branch  of 
the  industry,  like  the  others  described,  has  reached  enormous  propor- 
tions. At  the  present  time  there  are  approximately  forty  plants  op- 
erating in  Illinois.  This  industry  received  a  marked  stimulus  during 
the  war,  during  which  time  there  was  an  unusual  demand  for  con- 
densed milk.  Not  only  did  the  condensing  plants  increase  in  numbers 
during  that  time,  but  those  already  in  existence  more  than  doubled 
their  output.  The  close  of  the  war  found  both  this  country  and 
Europe  heavily  overstocked  with  evaporated  milk, — so  much  so,  in 
fact,  that  during  the  past  two  years  many  plants  have  been  entirely 
closed,  waiting  for  the  time  when  their  old  stocks  would  be  cleared 
away. 

Another  departure  which  comes  well  within  the  period  of  prog- 
ress under  discussion  is  the  development  of  the  powdered-milk  in- 
dustry. This  is  a  process  by  which  either  whole  milk  or  skim  milk 
is  reduced  to  a  powdered  form  containing  only  the  solids  of  milk. 
The  resulting  product  contains  all  the  valuable  constituents  of  milk 
in  a  volume  which  measures  only  eight  per  cent  of  the  original  milk. 
Dry  milk  is  readily  put  back  into  solution  and  used  for  drinking  pur- 
poses, in  baking  or  in  ice  cream.  This  industry  is  still  in  its  infancy 
and  opens  a  fruitful  field  for  the  investigative  mind.  It  should  also 
be  mentioned  in  this  connection  that  this  same  process  has  been  ap- 
plied to  buttermilk,  resulting  in  the  conservation  of  millions  of  gallons 
of  this  product  which  were  formerly  wasted. 

BUTTER  MANUFACTURE 

The  manufacture  of  butter  is  not  usually  thought  of  as  one  of  the 
large  dairy-product  industries.  However,  if  we  take  the  United 
States  as  a  whole,  the  value  of  the  butter  approximately  equals  the 
combined  value  of  all  other  dairy  products.  When  we  study  the  de- 
velopments in  the  butter  industry  in  our  own  state  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century,  we  find  more  significant  changes  than  in  any 
other  branch  of  the  dairy  industry.  The  two  inventions  which  have 
exerted  a  major  influence  in  bringing  about  these  changes  have  been 
the  Babcock  test  and  the  farm  separator. 


24  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

Twenty-five  years  ago  the  raw  material  for  butter-making  was 
delivered  by  the  farmer  to  the  creamery  door  in  the  form  of  whole 
milk,  which  was  skimmed,  and  the  cream  churned  into  butter,  for 
which  payment  was  made  monthly  or  semi-monthly.  The  by-product, 
skim  milk,  was  returned  to  the  farm  for  pig  feed.  The  introduction 
of  the  farm  separator  has  revolutionized  this  branch  of  the  industry. 
The  producer  was  quick  to  see  the  economy  of  a  less  bulky  product, 
in  the  form  of  cream,  as  well  as  of  less  frequent  deliveries.  This 
economy,  combined  with  the  fact  that  the  souring  of  cream  does  not 
necessarily  deteriorate  its  quality  for  butter-making  purposes,  enabled 
the  cream  to  be  shipped  long  distances  to  the  concern  which  would 
give  the  best  satisfaction.  The  use  of  the  separator  has  thus  resulted 
in  a  concentration  of  the  creamery  business  into  a  fewer  number  of 
large,  modern  plants,  where  economy  of  every  kind  is  resorted  to,  the 
results  of  which  are  reflected  in  the  producer's  cream  check.  While 
the  amount  of  butter  manufactured  in  Illinois  creameries  is  more 
than  double  that  of  twenty  years  ago,  the  number  of  plants  is  less 
than  one-sixth  as  great,  and  sixty  per  cent  of  the  butter  is  made  in  less 
than  thirty  plants. 

Outside  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  the  actual  making 
of  butter,  two  very  important  developments  in  the  productive  side  of 
the  business  are  worthy  of  mention.  First,  in  respect  to  the  relation 
between  the  amount  of  farm-made  butter  and  creamery  butter: 
Twenty-five  years  ago,  the  amount  of  farm-made  butter  exceeded  that 
made  in  the  creamery  by  three  times;  in  1910  the  Census  reported 
46,000  pounds  produced  on  farms  and  24,000  pounds  in  factories ;  and 
at  the  present  time  this  ratio  is  practically  reversed.  This  is  another 
way  of  saying  that  by  the  introduction  of  the  hand  separator  this 
branch  of  dairying  has  been  carried  to  the  remote  parts  of  the  state ; 
and  it  is  almost  a  uniform  practise,  even  on  our  corn-belt  farms,  to 
keep  a  few  cows,  the  product  of  which  is  shipped  in  the  form  of  cream 
to  some  centralizing  creamery  to  be  made  into  butter.  Thus  the 
creamery  industry  has  converted  a  comparatively  low-priced  product, 
"farm  butter,"  into  a  high-priced  product,  creamery  butter,  the  bene- 
fit of  which  largely  goes  to  the  producer.  As  an  interesting  incident 
in  this  connection,  it  may  here  be  noted  that  the  withdrawal  of  this 
large  amount  of  farm  butter  from  the  market  has  virtually  closed 
the  plants  which  formerly  made  renovated  butter. 

On  the  inside,  or  in  the  manufacturing  plant,  the  development 
has  been  commensurate  with  the  development  in  the  field.  Great  in- 
stitutions capable  of  making  and  marketing  millions  of  pounds  of 


THE  DAIRY  INDUSTRY  25 

butter  at  a  minimum  expense  have  grown  up.  These  plants  have  been 
departmentalized,  in  order  to  render  a  maximum  service  to  producer 
and  to  consumer  alike.  This  means  that  in  the  creamery  business, 
not  only  methods  of  procuring  the  raw  material,  methods  of  handling 
and  manufacturing,  and  great  improvements  in  machinery  have  been 
developed,  but  also  that  the  business  end  of  this  great  enterprise  has 
grown  from  a  haphazard  practise  to  a  highly  specialized  system  equal 
to  any  other  industry  of  today. 

As  in  the  milk  industry,  science  has  contributed  its  share  to 
modern  creamery  practise.  Many  of  our  large  plants  today  have  well 
equipped  laboratories  with  a  scientific  staff  whose  duty  it  is  to 
standardize  and  control  plant  methods,  and  conduct  research  into 
problems  bearing  on  the  various  phases  of  the  industry.  Some  of  the 
important  developments  growing  out  of  such  studies  are:  methods 
for  determining  acidity  of  cream;  control  of  acidity  of  cream;  methods 
of  determining  moisture  and  salt  and  fat  content,  and  means  of  con- 
trolling them  in  the  finished  product ;  and  rapid  bacteriological  tests 
indicating  the  efficiency  of  sanitary  measures  and  pasteurization.  It 
may  also  be  of  interest  to  state  that  one  of  our  large  machinery  or- 
ganizations characterizes  itself  as  an  organization  of  "dairy  engineers," 
and  that  much  of  their  effort  has  been  spent  in  making  short  cuts  of 
chemical  and  bacteriological  methods  which  would  reduce  these  op- 
erations to  a  basis  of  every-day  plant  practise. 

All  of  this  does  not  mean  that  our  creamery  problems  are  all 
solved ;  on  the  contrary,  this  new  development  comes  laden  with  prob- 
lems of  both  a  business  and  a  scientific  character. 

COLD  STORAGE  FACILITIES 

Parallel  with  the  development  within  the  industry  has  been  the 
development  of  cold-storage  facilities,  a  system  little  understood  by  the 
consuming  public.  Often  the  storage  house  is  described  as  a  recep- 
tacle for  hoarding  food  and  its  operator  as  a  parasite  living  off  the 
public;  but  when  we  realize  that  one-half  of  the  volume  of  butter 
produced  is  produced  in  three  to  four  months,  we  cannot  fail  to  rec- 
ognize that  the  storing  of  a  perishable  product  like  butter  is  quite  as 
desirable  as  the  canning  of  peaches  in  the  time  of  plenty  for  the  winter 
supply.  In  the  absence  of  cold  storage,  a  part  of  our  supply  in  the 
spring  would  be  almost  valueless,  and  in  winter  our  prices  would  be 
prohibitive.  So  the  storage  house,  properly  conducted,  performs  the 
double  function  of  storing  and  financing  our  butter  surplus. 


26  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

ORGANIZATIONS 

In  the  field  under  discussion  we  cannot  fail  to  recognize  certain 
agencies  outside  of  the  manufacturing  plants  themselves,  which  have 
played  their  part  in  our  progress.  I  refer  to  such  organizations  as 
the  National  Dairy  Council,  which,  recognizing  the  fact  that  our 
dairy  products  must  necessarily  be  marketed  at  home,  and  realizing 
that  our  production  is  already  up  to  our  consumption,  has  set  out,  dur- 
ing the  past  ten  years,  on  well-planned  educational  campaigns,  looking 
toward  the  increase  in  consumption  of  all  dairy  products.  The 
American  Association  of  Creamery  Butter  Manufacturers,  with  Pro- 
fessor McKay  as  its  secretary,  has  functioned  for  the  whole  creamery 
industry  for  ten  years  as  a  clearing  house  for  the  many  problems  which 
have  confronted  the  centralized  creamery  business.  The  Association 
of  Illinois  Butter  Manufacturers,  which  was  formed  about  a  dozen 
years  ago,  has  served  its  purpose  in  eliminating  numerous  trade  evils 
which  seem  necessarily  to  exist  in  a  new-formed  industry.  The  Illinois 
Ice  Cream  Makers  Association  has  performed  a  similar  service  for  the 
ice  cream  industry. 

As  has  already  been  suggested  at  many  points  in  this  paper,  much 
of  the  development  indicated  as  having  taken  place  in  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  has  been  made  possible  through  the  various  activities  of 
the  Agricultural  College.  This  assistance  has  taken  the  form  of  new 
scientific  discoveries,  the  adaptation  of  chemical  and  bacteriological 
methods  to  commercial  conditions,  the  adaptation  of  scientific  business 
principles  to  a  highly  specialized  industry,  and  the  furnishing  of 
trained  men  for  putting  these  discoveries  into  execution ;  and,  finally, 
the  College  has  set  a  mark  to  shoot  at  in  respect  to  the  quality  of  dairy 
products.  In  fact,  so  intimately  are  these  contributions  woven  into 
the  whole  structure  of  dairy  manufactures  that  their  source  is 
scarcely  recognized  except  on  occasions  of  this  kind  when  we  are  tak- 
ing inventories.  In  closing,  it  should  be  said  that  the  dairy  industry, 
as  never  before,  is  looking  to  the  Agricultural  College  for  assistance 
in  the  solution  of  its  problems  as  well  as  for  the  training  of  its  men, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  when  the  resume  of  the  activities  of  the 
dairy  industry  is  written  for  the  next  twenty-five  years,  it  will  contain 
in  large  letters  the  name  of  the  Agricultural  College. 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  HORTICULTURE 

J.  C.  BLAIR,  Professor  of  Horticulture 


HE  HORTICULTURAL  developments  of  our  state  started 
with  the  organization  of  the  State  Horticultural  Society 
in  1864,  and  the  opening  of  the  Illinois  Industrial  Univer- 
sity in  1867,  when  instruction  in  horticulture  and  botany 
was  made  a  regular  part  of  the  program  of  state  education. 
The  progress  made  during  the  first  quarter-century  of 
this  time  was  slow,  both  as  regards  the  commercial  development  and 
educational  developments  in  horticulture.  Of  course,  the  commercial 
development  has  been  largely  the  outgrowth  of  the  educational  ad- 
vancements which  have  taken  place  through  the  state  organizations 
and  the  State  University. 

In  1877,  ten  years  after  the  University  had  started,  nine  students 
were  registered  in  the  horticultural  courses;  and  eighteen  students, 
including  the  special  students,  in  agriculture.  The  total  appropria- 
tion for  the  Horticultural  Department  was  seventy  dollars  and  re- 
ceipts for  that  year  netted  not  quite  three  hundred  dollars.  At  this 
time,  be  it  remembered,  and  for  many  years  to  come  the  College  of 
Agriculture  was  divided  into  two  schools,  the  School  of  Agriculture 
and  the  School  of  Horticulture.  The  object  of  the  School  of  Horti- 
culture was  to  afford  a  scientific  and  practical  education  specially 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  those  who  cultivated  garden  and  orchard 
plants,  or  wished  to  manage  nurseries,  parks,  and  pleasure  grounds. 
The  instruction  was  both  theoretical  and  practical.  The  classroom 
recitations  and  lectures  were  supplemented  by  practise  in  the  fields  and 
plant  houses.  The  technical  studies  pursued  were :  elements  of  horti- 
culture ;  pomology  and  forestry ;  plant  houses  and  management ;  land- 
scape gardening;  floriculture;  and  horticultural  history  and  rural 
law. 

It  was  not  until  1896,  with  the  reorganization  and  reestablish- 
ment  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  at  the  University,  that  horticulture 
was  truly  given  that  impetus  which  would  justify  its  place  as  a  perma- 
nent factor  in  any  system  of  state  agricultural  development.  It  is 
therefore  simply  to  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  our  history  that  we 
look  for  any  record  of  real  achievement. 

CONDITIONS  TWENTY-FIVE  YEARS  AGO 

Twenty-five  years  ago  with  a  large  acreage  in  the  state  devoted 
to  orchard  fruits,  small  fruits,  and  vegetables,  and  with  almost  no 

27 


28  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

development  in  floriculture  and  landscape  gardening,  the  cultivation, 
pruning,  and  spraying  of  orchard  trees  was  wholly  unknown.  Indeed, 
at  that  time,  it  was  thought  that  there  never  would  be  need  for  the 
spraying  of — even  apple  trees.  True,  apple  scab  fungus  had  been 
studied,  and  some  suggestions  for  its  control  had  been  made.  But, 
as  late  as  1896  not  much  attention  was  given  it  in  the  department 
curriculum,  in  which  were  offered  the  following  courses:  orcharding 
and  grape  culture;  plant  propagation  and  small  fruits;  vegetable 
gardening ;  forestry ;  landscape  gardening ;  economic  botany ;  special 
investigation  and  thesis  work.  Two  graduate  courses:  studies  in 
combating  fungus,  insect  and  other  enemies  of  plants,  including  spray 
materials  and  methods;  studies  in  plant  breeding,  hybridization,  and 
self-  and  cross-fertilization.  But,  according  to  the  report  of  the 
President  to  the  Board  of  Trustees:  "The  Horticultural  Department 
had  been  busy  in  removing  useless  trees  and  hedges,  renovating 
orchards  and  sod,  trimming  borders,  repairing  walks  and  drives,  and 
in  giving  things  a  general  air  of  tidiness.  In  the  spring,  plantings  of 
small  fruits  will  add  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  gardens  and  be  in  a 
sense  something  of  an  experiment.  The  possibilities  of  straightening 
trees  that  had  commenced  to  lean  to  one  side  is  being  tested."  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  by  the  next  year  (1897)  the  plantings  of  vari- 
eties of  small  fruits  had  been  extended,  and  more  careful  investigations 
were  made  into  the  results  of  spraying. 

During  the  years  1895  and  1896,  not  more  than  three  knapsack 
sprayers  were  in  use  in  the  state.  One  of  these  was  used  by  George  W. 
Endicott,  for  spraying  his  vines  at  Villa  Ridge,  one  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Horticulture  at  the  University,  and  the  other  by  Worthen 
in  his  grape  growing  in  the  Navoo  region.  The  first  spraying  with 
a  barrel-pump  was  done  by  the  writer  in  the  orchard  of  Valentine 
J.  Kiem,  near  Quincy,  November  11,  12,  and  13,  1896.  The  first 
knowledge  of  the  presence  of  San  Jose  scale  in  the  state  of  Illinois 
was  had  upon  the  examination  by  the  State  Entomologist  of  some  twigs 
sent  in  by  Mr.  Kiem.  The  spray  material  used  in  this  first  work 
against  the  San  Jose  scale  was  whale-oil  soap,  in  a  hot  solution 
prepared  by  dissolving  two  pounds  of  soap  in  one  gallon  of  water. 
The  following  spring  (1897)  permission  was  granted  the  writer  to 
carry  on  experiments  for  the  control  of  apple  scab  and  codling  moth 
in  the  orchard  of  H.  M.  Dunlap,  at  Savoy.  This  work  was  con- 
tinued for  a  series  of  years  and  the  results  published  annually  in  the 
transactions  of  the  Illinois  State  Horticultural  Society  and  in  the 
Experiment  Station  reports. 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  HORTICULTURE  29 

Within  the  year  1898,  a  representative  of  the  Department  had 
visited  nearly  two  hundred  fruit  plantations  in  forty-seven  counties 
of  the  state  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  horticultural  conditions. 
A  practical  demonstration  of  the  methods  of  spraying  was  made  in 
Johnson  county,  at  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  Southern  Illinois 
Horticultural  Society.  The  exhibition  created  great  interest  and 
elicited  many  questions.  Many  requests  came  in  for  its  repetition; 
but  expenses  made  this  impossible.  Another  subject  that  occupied  a 
great  deal  of  attention  at  this  time  was  orchard  cultivation.  During 
the  school  term  there  was  taught  the  "largest  class  in  horticulture  ever 
in  the  University;  namely,  fourteen  students,  besides  those  of  the 
Winter  School."  Two  publications,  one  on  "Orchard  Cultivation," 
and  the  other,  "Spraying  Fruit  Trees,"  were  issued  at  this  time. 

DEVELOPMENTS  IN  POMOLOGY 

The  most  pressing  problems  in  fruit  production  in  Illinois  have 
been  those  affecting  the  control  of  insect  and  fungous  pests,  and  the 
regulation  of  the  supply  of  plant  food.  The  early  problem  in  orchard- 
ing, therefore,  was  largely  that  of  protection.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  commercial  apple  crop  of  Illinois  amounts  to  more  than  ten 
million  dollars  annually,  exclusive  of  the  fruit  sold  locally  from  farm 
orchards.  Without  the  protection  afforded  by  spraying,  insect  and 
fungous  attack  would  no  doubt  make  apple  growing  in  Illinois  an 
impossibility.  In  the  year  1898,  the  loss  from  apple  scab  alone 
amounted  to  $3,500,000;  while  by  1900  bitter  rot  had  gained  such 
headway  that  the  annual  loss  due  to  that  disease  alone,  was  estimated 
at  $1,500,000. 

In  1901,  Illinois  ranked  third  in  horticultural  importance,  with 
a  larger  apple  acreage  than  any  other  state  in  the  Union.  Owing  to 
the  great  loss  from  bitter  rot  the  preceding  year,  and  the  fact  that 
nothing  was  known  about  the  disease,  orchardists  were  altogether 
helpless  before  its  ravages.  The  Experiment  Station,  realizing 
the  great  need  for  help,  inaugurated  experimental  work  in  twelve 
orchards  throughout  the  state  to  study  a  means  of  control  for  this 
fungous  disease.  At  the  close  of  the  first  year's  experimental  work 
good  progress  had  been  made  but  the  fact  remained  that  much  was 
yet  to  be  done  before  the  problems  connected  with  the  disease  could 
be  considered  solved.  A  brief  circular  describing  the  discovery  and 
giving  prompt  advice  to  growers  was  issued  and  further  tests  and 
information  were  published  about  fourteen  days  later  (July  15  and 
29,  1901). 


30  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

About  the  same  time  the  problem  of  fruit  storage  came  up  for 
investigation.  Fruit  storage  is  a  most  important  problem,  especially 
for  the  apple  growers  in  Illinois,  because  of  its  direct  bearing  on  the 
profit  of  their  business.  Storage  facilities  in  Chicago  were  perhaps 
three  hundred  thousand  barrels,  and  in  the  state  six  hundred  thousand 
barrels;  yet  this  was  entirely  inadequate  to  meet  the  need.  In  order 
to  investigate  this  problem,  a  storage  house  was  built  at  Neoga,  and 
storage  cellars  at  Olney,  Champaign,  and  Savoy. 

Experiments  in  spraying  for  the  control  of  apple  blotch,  con- 
ducted in  1913,  showed  that  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent  of  the 
crop  could  be  saved  from  apple  blotch  in  severely  infested  orchards; 
experiments  in  1916  showed  that  ninety  per  cent  of  the  fruit  might 
be  saved  from  this  disease;  and  further  experiments  in  1917  and 
1918  have  confirmed  the  above  results.  Investigations  have  further 
shown  that  spraying  with  the  proper  materials  at  the  proper  time  will 
save  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  per  cent  of  fruit  from  codling  moth ; 
and  it  has  also  been  shown  that  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  per  cent  can 
be  saved  from  apple  scab.  The  Illinois  Station  has  experimented 
and  published  more  extensively  on  spraying  for  the  control  of  apple 
pests  than  has  any  other  experiment  station. 

The  most  significant  problem  in  orcharding  is  production:  in- 
creased planting  and  increased  yield.  Experiments  inaugurated  in  a 
large  commercial  orchard  at  Neoga  in  1913,  showed  as  a  result  of  five 
years'  work  that  the  addition  of  nitrogen  to  the  soil  in  the  form  of 
sodium  nitrate,  stable  manure,  and  leguminous  green  manures,  had 
increased  the  yield  of  apples  by  twenty-seven  barrels  per  annum. 
Practically  all  bearing  orchards  in  Illinois  need  fertilizing.  From 
the  fertilization  of  peaches  even  more  significant  results  have  been 
obtained  on  the  farm  at  Olney.  Altho  the  peach  orchard  was  only 
four  years  old  (planted  in  1916),  and  bore  its  first  crop  in  1920,  the 
best  fertilized  plot  yielded  at  the  rate  of  125  bushels  per  acre  more 
than  the  poorest  unfertilized  plot.  This  same  plot  yielded  204 
bushels  more  per  acre  than  another  plot  (not  the  poorest)  which  had 
been  cultivated  and  fertilized  according  to  the  methods  in  vogue  in  the 
cultivation  of  this  fruit.  Ten  acres  of  land  and  twelve  hundred  trees 
were  used  in  this  experiment.  Increasing  the  yields  of  the  suitably 
located  peach  orchards  of  Illinois  by  such  increases  as  were  obtained 
in  the  experiments  above  described  would  mean  an  additional  profit 
of  $700,000  to  $1,500,000  to  the  industry,  in  all  favorable  seasons. 

In  a  bulletin  of  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture  (No.  767) 
by  the  Fruit  Crop  Specialist,  Bureau  of  Crop  Estimates,  we  find  the 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  HORTICULTURE  31 

following  statement:  "From  the  standpoint  of  total  production,  Illi- 
nois leads  all  the  Middle  Western  States,  and  its  summer  apple  region 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  state  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  the 
United  States.  In  Illinois,  as  in  all  Middle  Western  States,  the 
question  of  sprayed  and  unsprayed  acreage  is  important  in  considering 
the  commercial  apple  industry,  especially  since  so  many  one-time  com- 
mercial orchards  all  through  the  Middle  West  have  been  left  un- 
sprayed and  uncared  for,  and  are  rapidly  losing  their  commercial  im- 
portance. However,  a  more  recent  revival  of  interest  is  responsible 
for  greater  care  being  given  to  the  remaining  orchards,  and  an 
important  place  is  being  assured  for  Middle  West  apples." 

The  first  great  Illinois  Apple  Show  was  held  November  19  to 
23,  1918,  at  the  Morrison  Hotel,  Chicago,  being  promoted  by  the 
Illinois  State  Horticultural  Society  and  held  under  the  auspices  of 
the  State  Council  of  Defense.  Since  that  time  many  excellent  horti- 
cultural shows  have  been  held  in  connection  with  county  and  state 
fairs  and  in  many  of  our  large  commercial  centers. 

In  1917  and  1918,  investigations  were  made  on  drying  apples  in 
a  convenient  and  attractive  form,  and  a  new  and  successful  process 
was  developed  and  described.  This  study  indicates  that  the  apple  may 
be  preserved  for  long  periods  of  time  in  a  form  superior  to  ordinary 
dried  apples.  This  experiment,  tho  important  in  itself,  also  opened  up 
a  very  large  field  for  research  and  investigation  on  the  utilization  of 
fruit  by-products  and  on  the  manufacture  of  various  products  di- 
rectly from  fruits  themselves.  Laboratories  for  further  prosecution 
of  this  and  similiar  lines  of  investigation  and  for  teaching  are  now 
nearing  completion  as  a  result  of  an  appropriation  of  $260,000  by  the 
last  General  Assembly. 

In  1899  there  were,  in  Illinois.  16,794  acres  devoted  to  small 
fruits,  valued  at  $13,602,676;  in  1919  there  were  11,723  acres  valued 
at  $1,109,747;  and  in  1920  we  find  11,215  acres  valued  at  $2,064,524. 

Through  the  encouragement  given  the  originator  (Reverend 
Reasoner)  by  the  Department  of  Horticulture,  the  original  Dunlap 
strawberry  plants  were  saved  for  further  test  and  propagation.  The 
Dunlap  variety,  which  originated  at  Urbana,  was  introduced  in  1900, 
but  had  been  under  observation  by  Burrill  and  Blair  since  1896.  It 
is  the  leading  variety  grown  in  the  North-Central  states;  it  is  very 
hardy  and  productive,  and  the  most  resistant  to  disease.  It  is  suc- 
cessfully grown  over  a  larger  range  of  territory  than  any  horticul- 
tural variety  yet  introduced. 


32  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

DEVELOPMENTS  IN  OLERICULTURE 

There  is  another  phase  of  the  agricultural  development  of  the 
state,  particularly  the  southern  third,  that  is  of  even  greater  im- 
portance than  the  orchard  interests.  Reference  is  made  to  the  veg- 
etable industry.  The  value  of  the  annual  vegetable  crop  in  Illinois 
exceeds  sixteen  million  dollars.  Among  the  states  of  the  Union, 
Illinois  ranks  fourth  in  value  of  vegetables  produced. 

In  the  spring  of  1900  a  campaign  for  the  improvement  of  home 
vegetable  gardens  on  Illinois  farms  was  started.  A  demonstration 
garden  was  planted,  and  was  maintained  for  five  years.  This  served, 
not  only  as  a  model  for  students  and  for  visitors  at  the  University, 
but  furnished  data  for  two  publications  showing  the  large  profit  that 
may  be  secured  from  a  properly  managed  garden  on  the  farm.  Labor- 
saving  methods  of  planting  and  tillage  were  employed.  The  garden 
as  a  factor  in  food  production  for  the  Illinois  farmers'  family  is  now 
admitted  to  be  of  much  more  importance  than  it  was  considered 
twenty-five  years  ago.  The  University  has  had  a  large  part  in  the 
shaping  of  this  sentiment. 

In  1907,  at  a  time  when  the  melon  industry  of  the  state  was 
threatened  with  destruction  by  the  fungous  disease  commonly  called 
"rust,"  the  Department  introduced  the  rust-resistant  type  of  musk- 
melon  among  Illinois  growers.  This  type  of  melon  has  now  become 
the  dominant  one  used  by  commercial  growers,  and  has  made  it  pos- 
sible to  continue  growing  melons  where  the  old  types  have  entirely 
failed. 

Better  methods  of  grading,  packing,  and  marketing  fruits  and 
vegetables,  have  been  consistently  aided  by  the  Department.  Bulletin 
124,  issued  in  1908,  contained  the  first  descriptions  of  grades  of  musk- 
melons  ever  issued  in  America,  and  the  first  definite  directions  for  the 
proper  packing  of  basket  melons  of  different  sizes.  In  1910,  after 
five  years  of  experimental  work,  spraying  was  announced  as  a  definite 
method  of  controlling  the  leaf  spot  of  tomatoes.  The  working  out 
of  this  method  of  control  for  this  disease  is  a  distinct  contribution  to 
the  means  of  maintaining  a  healthful  food  supply  for  the  Nation. 
After  five  years  of  experimental  work  with  muskmelons,  an  economical 
yet  efficient  method  of  fertilizing  this  crop  was  reported  in  1912.  In 
1914,  the  results  of  six  years  of  experimental  work  with  onions  was 
reported.  Of  special  importance  was  the  account  of  the  growing  of 
ripe  onions  from  sets.  This  method  of  producing  dry  onions  had 
been  given  practically  no  attention  previous  to  these  experiments.  Its 
advantages  were  clearly  shown  by  the  results  obtained ;  and  now  the 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  HORTICULTURE  33 

method  has  been  quite  generally  adopted  by  market  gardeners  for  the 
production  of  an  early  crop.  As  a  result  of  careful  selections 
through  a  series  of  years,  in  1917  two  wilt- resistant  strains  of  toma- 
toes were  secured.  These  strains  were  developed  in  the  badly  infested 
regions  of  southern  Illinois,  where  the  wilt  had  become  a  serious 
menace  to  tomato  culture,  and  have  proved  remarkably  resistant  to 
this  disease,  wherever  grown.  The  use  of  these  strains  for  avoiding 
loss  from  wilt,  and  spraying  for  control  of  leaf  spot  make  it  possible 
to  grow  good  crops  of  tomatoes  under  adverse  conditions. 

DEVELOPMENTS  IN  FLORICULTURE 

Floriculture  is  certainly  the  most  attractive  division  of  the  sub- 
ject of  horticulture,  as  well  as  the  most  important  commercially,  tak- 
ing the  country  at  large,  but  its  difficulties  and  problems  probably 
outnumber  those  of  any  of  the  other  divisions.  When  one  considers 
the  fact  that  its  operations  are  carried  on,  not  only  in  the  open,  but 
under  the  most  exacting  conditions  in  glass  houses,  one  is  confronted 
with  the  fact  that  here  arises  a  new  set  of  problems  demanding  con- 
sideration and  solution.  In  1899,  Illinois  had  not  quite  seven  hundred 
acres  of  land  devoted  to  flowering  plants,  valued  at  $1,894,960. 
Looking  at  the  Census  report  for  1910,  with  its  1,339  acres  of  Illi- 
nois land  devoted  to  flowers;  and  then  in  1920,  with  19,626,091 
square  feet  under  glass  and  valued  at  $9,987,606 ;  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  development  in  floriculture  in  Illinois  has  been  a  very  rapid  one. 
In  1907,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry,  placed  Illinois 
as  first  in  the  area  under  glass  devoted  to  commercial  flower  growing. 
The  retail  value  of  flowers  and  plants  sold  in  Illinois  increased  from 
nearly  three  million  dollars  in  1900  to  four  and  one-half  million 
in  1905. 

In  the  floricultural  development  at  the  University  of  Illinois, 
some  very  important  results  have  been  obtained  in  the  investigations 
with  fertilizers  in  their  relation  to  the  production  of  cut  flowers. 
From  a  three-year  project  on  the  effect  of  acid  phosphate,  it  was 
found  that  production  can  be  increased  in  a  profitable  way.  An  in- 
crease of  five  per  cent  in  the  production  both  of  carnations  and  of 
roses,  resulted  from  the  application  of  fertilizers;  bulletins  have  been 
issued  covering  these  results.  From  experimental  studies  made  to 
test  the  effect  of  using  the  same  soil  in  the  benches  continuously  for 
several  years,  it  was  found  that  the  plants  grown  on  the  second-year 
soil  were  in  every  way  as  productive  as  on  new  soil.  Since  1917,  the 
study  with  carnations  and  rose  plants  to  determine  the  effects  of  se- 


34  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

lection  upon  production  have  been  continued.  Such  study  as  has  been 
made  to  determine  the  possibility  of  eliminating  certain  physiological 
diseases  from  greenhouse  crops  by  means  of  plant  selection,  indicates 
success  by  this  method. 

DEVELOPMENTS  IN  PLANT  BREEDING 

In  plant  breeding  results  are  slow,  for  they  are  contingent  upon 
the  fruiting  of  hybrid  progeny.  In  crossing  hybrids,  two  difficulties 
are  encountered ;  namely,  obtaining  the  desired  pollen  at  the  right 
time,  and  sterility  of  many  of  the  hybrids.  The  appearance  and 
performance  of  first  generation  seedlings  serve  in  some  degree  to  indi- 
cate the  vitality  of  parent  plants  and  the  stability  of  their  characters. 
For  this  reason,  effort  centers  upon  production  of  second-generation 
seedlings  for  as  many  of  the  more  promising  groups  of  hybrids  as 
possible. 

Apple  hybridizing  was  begun  in  1909,  since  which  time  nearly 
fifty  thousand  flowers  have  been  pollinated.  Twenty-three  per  cent 
of  these  pollinations  have  been  successful,  that  is,  fruits  have  matured 
and  been  harvested.  There  are  814  different  groups  of  hybrids  repre- 
sented: The  same  varieties  and  species,  tho  often  not  the  same  indi- 
viduals, are  used  year  after  year.  The  seedlings  range  in  age  from 
one  to  twelve  years.  Fruits  from  sixty-eight  hybrid  seedlings  possess 
sufficient  merit  to  warrant  propagation  and  further  trial.  These  trees 
vary,  in  season  of  fruit  maturity,  from  early  summer  to  late  winter; 
each  is  a  potential  new  variety;  these  are  being  tested  with  reference 
to  productiveness  and  to  the  keeping  quality  of  the  fruit. 

DEVELOPMENTS  IN  LANDSCAPE  GARDENING 

As  early  as  1868  a  course  in  landscape  gardening  is  mentioned 
as  part  of  the  work  in  horticulture.  In  1869,  the  Third  Annual  Cir- 
cular of  the  Illinois  Industrial  University,  announces  that  the  "School 
of  Horticulture  will  include  the  formation,  management,  and  care  of 
gardens,  hotbeds,  orchards,  tree  plantations,  and  ornamental  grounds." 
By  1871  there  had  been  mapped  out  a  much  more  complete  course 
of  study,  and  we  find  for  the  junior  year,  second  term,  a  course  in 
garden  architecture;  third  term,  "landscape  gardening,"  with  the 
illuminating  remark  that  "Ladies  and  gentlemen  alike  engage  in  the 
studies  and  exercises  of  the  course."  Five  years  later,  the  circular  an- 
nounces that  "Eleven  weeks  are  devoted  to  the  study  of  'Landscape 
Gardening.'  "  But  since  only  twenty-four  men  were  registered  in  the 


DEVELOPMENTS  IN  HORTICULTURE  35 

entire  "School  of  Agriculture"  and  two  in  the  "School  of  Horticul- 
ture," it  is  doubtful  if  much  of  value  was  worked  out. 

In  1888,  landscape  gardening  was  taught  during  the  spring  term 
by  lectures  and  practical  work.  After  a  study  of  the  materials,  in- 
cluding grass,  trees,  flowers,  substances  used  for  walks,  drives,  fences, 
and  other  architectural  features,  the  method  of  designing  and  drawing 
plans  was  taken  up  and  put  into  practise.  In  1895,  a  course 
"Gardens"  was  announced.  A  year  later  the  writer  was  appointed 
instructor  in  horticulture,  and  again  a  course  in  landscape  gardening 
was  offered.  This  was  described  as  a  course  on  "Ornamental  and 
landscape  gardens,"  with  reference  to  the  treatment  of  home  sur- 
roundings. It  was  not  until  1904  that  the  exigencies  of  the  case 
seemed  to  demand  a  special  instructor  to  teach  landscape  gardening. 
In  1907  and  1908  five  new  courses  were  added,  and  in  1912  there 
was  sufficient  demand  for  the  work  to  launch  landscape  gardening  as 
a  separate  division.  The  significant  thing  is  that  the  University  of 
Illinois  now  has  the  leading  department  of  landscape  gardening  in 
the  country,  both  as  to  variety  and  character  of  the  work  offered  and 
as  to  number  of  students  enrolled. 

Many  of  the  pioneers  in  Illinois  advocated  and  practised  the 
planting  of  other  than  fruit  trees,  but  only  for  shelter  and  timber — 
not  in  an  ornamental  way.  Public  parks  were  unknown.  Some 
towns  or  villages  had  a  public  square  upon  which  there  was  built,  or 
to  be  built  at  some  future  date,  a  county  courthouse  or  the  like,  and 
here  a  few  maples  or  elms  were  usually  planted.  On  school  grounds, 
if  anything  was  done  at  all,  a  few  forest  trees  were  planted.  The 
attempts  of  the  housewife  for  beautification  in  this  new  country  were 
very  simple.  Rapid  development,  however,  was  destined  to  take 
place.  Towns  and  cities  sprang  up  almost  as  if  over  night ;  and  it  is 
here  that  we  look  for  the  earliest  development  of  ornamental  horti- 
culture, landscape  gardening,  and  adornment  of  home  grounds.  The 
real  effort  in  landscape  development  was  ushered  in  with  the  coming 
to  our  state  of  the  great  Columbian  Exposition  held  in  Chicago  in 
1893.  It  was  the  tireless  work  of  Olmsted,  and  later,  of  quite  a  few 
distinguished  artists,  that  planned  and  opened  a  way  for  new  realiza- 
tions in  our  parks  and  other  made-landscapes.  They  gave  the  world 
a  vision  of  supreme  beauty,  which  was  to  be  the  inspiration  of  the 
century  and  its  most  priceless  gift  to  the  coming  days,  in  an  artistic 
sense.  The  Exposition  aroused  the  pride  and  spirit  of  cities  through- 
out the  Middle  West.  A  few  years  later  Chicago  instituted  a  com- 
mission to  consider  a  plan  for  the  development  of  the  city,  and  to  es- 


36  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

tablish  playgrounds.     This  work  is  now  progressing  rapidly. 

Landscape  development  was  also  fostered  by  the  desire  of  his- 
torical associations  to  preserve  for  future  generations  the  old  land- 
marks in  Illinois  history.  The  restoration  of  the  "rocks"  along  the 
Rock  river,  lake  bluffs,  river  banks,  ravines,  sand  dunes,  and  bits  of 
natural  woods  was  carried  on.  The  Illinois  Chapter  of  the  Daugh- 
ters of  the  American  Revolution  made  possible  the  restoration  of  the 
old  Fort  Massac,  located  on  the  Ohio  River  near  Metropolis,  Illinois. 
The  planning  and  the  execution  of  this  work  was  done  by  the  speaker. 
It  seems  safe  to  say  that  much  of  the  rapidity  of  development  in  land- 
scape gardening,  in  its  various  phases,  is  due  to  the  combination  of  the 
theoretical  and  the  practical.  In  the  professional  field  many  of  our 
graduates  have  been  real  influences  in  the  building  of  a  better  and 
more  beautiful  Middle  West. 

All  organizations  and  state  agencies,  including  the  University, 
should  do  everything  in  their  power  to  make  our  farms,  our  country 
places,  beautiful  as  well  as  economically  and  efficiently  arranged  and 
more  healthful  places  in  which  to  live.  The  coming  generations,  as 
well  as  the  present,  have  a  right  to  expect  this.  With  further  ex- 
pansion of  our  horticultural  developments,  Illinois  will  shortly  be  the 
most  beautiful  country  in  the  world.  It  is  essentially  a  horticultural 
state,  where  all  sorts  of  horticultural  products  reach  their  highest  de- 
velopment. The  agriculture  of  the  future  will  be  more  intensive  ag- 
riculture and  less  extensive.  This  means  small  and  better  developed 
farms,  with  a  richer,  more  healthful  and  beautiful  home  life.  I  am 
glad  to  have  had  a  part  in  the  developments  of  the  past,  some  of  which 
have  been  briefly  touched  upon  here;  and  it  is  my  earnest  desire  to 
further  in  any  way  possible  future  progress  in  horticulture. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL 
EXPERIMENT  STATION 

L.  H.  SMITH,  Chief  in  Charge  of  Publications  of  the  Soil  Survey 


T  IS  my  privilege  to  review  the  work  of  this  Experiment 
Station  since  its  foundation  and  to  present  briefly  its  out- 
standing accomplishments.  The  Illinois  Agricultural  Ex- 
periment Station  was  organized  in  1888.  For  a  record  of 
its  achievement  one  naturally  turns  to  its  published  re- 
ports. I  find  that  during  the  thirty-four  years  of  its  ex- 
istence there  have  been  published  237  Bulletins  and  19  Soil  Reports, 
aggregating  altogether  9,806  pages  of  printed  matter.  This  may,  for 
present  purposes,  be  taken  as  a  quantitative  measure  of  its  scientific 
output.  I  am  sure  you  will  appreciate  the  compound  problem  that  I 
have  before  me;  first,  in  selecting  from  this  array  of  material  that 
which  is  most  significant,  and  second,  in  presenting  the  same  in  the 
allotted  time.  : 

Following  the  custom  of  the  experiment  station  investigator  to 
do  his  work,  as  well  as  his  thinking,  within  somewhat  discreet  units 
known  as  "departments,"  I  have  decided  to  take  up  the  consideration 
before  us  somewhat  on  the  departmental  plan.  For  our  purpose,  how- 
ever, we  need  not  make  our  departments  quite  so  "watertight"  as 
critics  of  the  system  have  sometimes  implied  it  to  be.  Therefore,  for 
convenience  in  considering  all  this  experimental  work  that  covers  such 
a  wide  range  of  subjects,  suppose  we  take  up  these  investigations  under 
the  following  groups:  soils,  plants,  animals,  and  farm  organization. 
This  system  is  sufficiently  comprehensive,  and  it  would  seem  to  be  a 
logical  one,  for  first,  we  must  have  the  soil  in  order  to  grow  plants  ; 
then  we  must  have  the  plants  in  order  to  raise  animals;  and  finally, 
there  should  be  some  sort  of  a  correlating  agency,  such  as  a  department 
of  farm  organization.  Moreover,  this  grouping  has  an  advantage  for 
the  particular  purpose  in  hand,  over  one  based  upon  the  existing  plan 
of  departmental  organization,  in  that  much  of  the  past  work  that  we 
are  to  consider  was  not  done  by  the  departments  as  they  now  exist; 
and  it  would  not  be  altogether  fair  for  them  to  assume  either  the 
credit  or  the  responsibility. 

SOIL  INVESTIGATIONS 

Taking  up  that  subject  first  that  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all  pro- 
duction, let  us  make  a  hasty  survey  of  those  investigations  pertaining 
to  the  soil. 

37 


38  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

This  Experiment  Station  was  so  fortunate  as  to  inherit  at  its 
birth  the  oldest  soil  experiment  field  in  America.  The  series  of  plots 
now  known  as  the  Morrow  plots  had  been  laid  out  by  Professor 
George  E.  Morrow  and  had  been  running  about  a  decade  previous  to 
the  founding  of  the  Experiment  Station.  Who  would  be  bold  enough 
to  attempt  to  assess  the  value  of  these  old  plots  ?  The  records  of  all 
these  years  show,  on  the  one  hand,  how  this  rich  prairie  soil  of  Illinois 
can  be  abused  through  improper  management;  or  on  the  other  hand, 
how  it  can  be  built  up  by  proper  treatment.  For  example,  in  1919 
the  old  untreated  continuous-corn  plot  at  one  end  of  the  series  yielded 
twenty-eight  bushels  of  corn,  while  the  plot  at  the  other  end  that  has 
been  fertilized  and  kept  under  a  favorable  crop  rotation  gave  seventy 
bushels, — and  forty-one  years  before  this,  these  two  plots  lay  in  the 
same  field. 

Another  set  of  plots  on  the  University  campus,  forming  a  more 
extensive  series,  but  of  more  recent  origin,  are  the  Davenport  plots 
laid  out  by  Dean  Davenport  about  twenty-five  years  ago.  Both  the 
Morrow  and  the  Davenport  series,  as  we  now  see  them,  are  what  is 
left  of  a  much  larger  original  layout.  In  both  cases  the  plots  have 
been  reduced  in  number  with  the  demands  of  campus  developments. 
Thousands  of  farmers  every  year  witness  the  lessons  in  soil  manage- 
ment as  they  visit  these  plots.  It  would  seem  that  whatever  else  is 
changed  on  this  campus,  these  old  plots  should  be  preserved  for  the 
benefit  of  the  generations  to  follow. 

It  was  in  the  year  1900  that  Dr.  Cyril  G.  Hopkins  was  appointed 
to  the  chair  of  agronomy  and  took  up  his  great  life  work  in  the  study 
of  soils,  and  at  about  this  time  the  state  made  its  first  generous  approp- 
riation of  a  special  fund  for  soils  investigations.  In  pursuing  the  in- 
vestigations of  the  soils  of  Illinois  three  main  lines  of  procedure  were 
inaugurated;  namely,  the  soil  survey,  field  experiments,  and  pot  cul- 
ture investigations.  In  the  soil  survey  the  various  kinds  or  types  of 
soil  are  classified  and  mapped  in  such  a  manner  that  when  the  survey 
is  complete  every  landowner  in  the  state  will  have  a  description  of  the 
soil  on  his  farm,  will  know  approximately  its  composition,  and  will 
have  at  hand  information  relating  to  its  maintenance  and  improve- 
ment. This  work  has  progressed  so  that  now  eighty  counties  of  the 
state  have  been  mapped  and  published  reports  for  nineteen  counties 
have  been  issued. 

Field  experiments,  serving  for  investigation  as  well  as  for  dem- 
onstration, were  undertaken  on  the  more  important  types  of  soil.  The 
number  of  these  fields  has  increased  until  there  are  at  present  about 


THE  EXPERIMENT  STATION  39 

forty  distributed  on  different  soil  types  over  the  state.  On  these  fields 
such  problems  as  relate  to  plant-food  requirements,  proper  systems 
of  crop  rotation,  drainage,  prevention  of  soil  erosion,  subsoiling,  and 
dynamiting  are  being  investigated.  As  an  indication  of  the  growth 
in  popularity  of  these  fields  it  may  be  said  that  when  this  work  first 
started  it  was  difficult  to  obtain  land  for  the  purpose,  sometimes  even 
by  offering  a  fair  rental  price,  but  after  a  few  of  these  fields  had  been 
established  and  had  begun  to  demonstrate  their  value,  the  popularity 
of  this  work  grew  to  such  an  extent  that  finally  the  University  came 
into  the  position  of  being  able  to  demand  some  form  of  permanent 
tenure,  either  by  deed  or  by  permanent  lease,  before  it  would  accept  a 
piece  of  land  for  these  experimental  purposes. 

A  SYSTEM  OF  PERMANENT  FERTILITY 

As  the  results  of  his  investigations  accumulated,  Dr.  Hopkins 
gradually  evolved  a  philosophy  or  doctrine  of  soil  fertility  intended  to 
apply  to  the  normal  soils  of  Illinois  and  of  similar  areas.  His  domi- 
nant idea  was  to  provide  a  system  of  soil  fertility  that  would  result  in 
a  permanent  agriculture.  He  recognized  that  the  continual  removal 
of  crops  from  the  land  must  finally  lead  to  soil  exhaustion  unless  the 
materials  taken  from  the  soil  be  restored.  The  common  practise  of 
applying  commercial  fertilizers  returns  to  the  soil  some  of  the  neces- 
sary elements,  but  not  in  amounts  proportionate  to  the  quantities  re- 
moved by  crops,  thus  producing  the  effect  of  a  stimulation  of  the  soil 
rather  than  that  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  plant  food.  By  restoring 
the  elements  to  the  soil  somewhat  in  excess  of  the  amounts  in  which 
they  are  removed  by  cropping,  the  soil  is  not  only  maintained  in  its 
natural  fertility  but  is  actually  built  up  and  made  more  productive. 
In  order  to  accomplish  this  effect  the  elements  must  be  secured  in  the 
most  economic  form,  which  ordinarily  calls  for  raw  materials  rather 
than  those  that  are  treated  or  manufactured.  Thus  in  ordinary  crop- 
ping systems,  raw  rock  phosphate  should  be  used  and  the  natural  bio- 
logical process  of  the  soil  will  make  the  phosphorus  available.  Nitro- 
gen should  be  secured  from  the  air  through  the  growth  of  legume 
crops.  Potassium  is  abundant  in  most  normal  soils  and  the  problem 
of  supplying  this  element  is  usually  a  matter  of  liberation  from  the 
minerals  naturally  present  in  the  soil  rather  than  the  addition  of  pot- 
assium salts.  In  order  that  these  natural  biological  processes  may 
function  properly,  the  soil  must  be  kept  supplied  with  an  excess  of 
basic  material,  and  for  this  purpose  natural  crushed  limestone  serves 
best. 


40  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

This  is  an  attempt  at  a  very  brief  statement  of  the  fundamental 
or  guiding  principles  of  Dr.  Hopkins'  proposition  of  a  permanent  sys- 
tem of  agriculture.  There  are  hundreds  of  deviations  in  details, 
most  of  which  are  yet  to  be  worked  out.  Such  details  will  vary  with 
different  types  of  soil ;  they  will  vary  with  the  kind  of  enterprise  fol- 
lowed, whether  grain  farming,  live-stock  farming,  or  fruit  farming; 
they  will  vary  with  different  economic  situations,  such,  for  example, 
as  affect  the  accessibility  and  the  cost  of  different  forms  of  fertilizing 
materials.  And  so,  while  we  may  consider  that  the  great  idea  of  a 
permanent  system  of  agriculture,  and  the  fundamental  principles  for 
carrying  it  out,  may  be  counted  among  the  finished  problems  of  this 
Station,  in  reality  the  work  on  this  problem  is  only  well  begun.  The 
foundation  is  laid,  so  to  speak,  but  the  great  super-structure  is  yet  to 
be  erected  before  Illinois  agriculture  as  a  whole  shall  be  actually  upon 
a  permanent  basis. 

One  of  the  chief  questions  among  these  unsettled  problems  is  how 
to  maintain  the  nitrogen  supply  and  this  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
study.  As  an  example  along  this  line,  a  discovery  of  greatest  practical 
importance  was  made  when  it  was  found  that  the  organism  acting  on 
the  roots  of  sweet  clover  also  inoculates  the  alfalfa  plant.  This  has 
been  followed  by  similar  discoveries  relating  to  the  bacteria  of  other 
legumes.  The  most  recent  investigations  of  the  division  of  soil  biology 
are  revealing  very  practical  knowledge  of  the  most  advantageous  ways 
of  handling  legume  crops  looking  toward  the  solution  of  this  great 
nitrogen  problem.  Numerous  other  investigations  Under  way  look- 
ing toward  the  solution  of  many  of  these  unanswered  soil  problems 
might  be  mentioned  if  time  permitted. 

PLANT  PRODUCTION 

Turning  now  to  that  phase  of  our  discussion  that  has  to  do  with 
plant  production,  let  us  consider  next  some  of  the  work  relating  to 
field  crops. 

The  introduction  of  properly  adapted  varieties,  especially  in  corn, 
has  been  a  large  factor  in  improved  production.  The  attention  paid 
in  recent  years  to  the  vitality  of  the  seed  must  also  have  had  a  tre- 
mendous influence  in  this  direction. 

In  corn  breeding  this  experiment  station  was  a  pioneer.  The 
long-time  selection  experiments  in  corn  to  change  the  composition  of 
the  grain  have  attracted  world-wide  attention.  This  investigation 
has  been  continued  through  twenty-five  generations  of  breeding,  with 
unbroken  pedigree  records,  and  the  result  has  been  a  most  remarkable 


THE  EXPERIMENT  STATION  41 

response  to  the  selection.  Starting  with  a  single  variety  of  ordinary 
field  corn,  four  different  kinds  have  been  created,  one  of  which  is  now 
about  twice  as  rich  in  protein  as  another,  while  another  strain  now 
carries  about  five  times  as  much  oil  as  its  corresponding  opposite. 

As  another  example  of  the  possibility  of  improving  our  field  crops 
through  the  methods  of  plant  breeding,  may  be  cited  the  production  of 
the  new  variety  of  wheat  designated  as  Turkey  10-110.  This  wheat 
is  the  progeny  of  a  single  mother  plant  found  in  a  field  of  common 
Turkey  Red  in  1910.  Following  its  favorable  performance  in  the 
breeding  plots,  where,  as  a  six  year  average,  it  outyielded  the  parent 
variety  by  six  bushels  per  acre,  the  strain  has  been  increased  and  thous- 
ands of  bushels  of  seed  are  now  being  distributed  about  the  state  in 
those  sections  to  which  it  is  found  to  be  adapted. 

For  the  introduction  of  certain  valuable  new  crops,  the  Experi- 
ment Station  has  been  largely  responsible.  Among  these  crops  that 
have  been  established  in  Illinois  may  be  mentioned  the  soybean 
and  sweet  clover,  while  the  sunflower  promises  to  take  an  importnat 
place  as  a  silage  crop.  Sweet  clover  deserves,  perhaps,  more  than  a 
passing  mention;  for,  in  the  mind  of  the  writer,  the  introduction  of 
this  remarkable  plant  marks  an  epoch  in  Illinois  agriculture  in  the 
sense  that  we  have  adopted  a  plant  that  not  only  possesses  great  value 
as  a  forage  crop  but  also  one  that,  when  properly  handled,  goes  a  long 
way  toward  solving  the  nitrogen  problem. 

As  an  outcome  of  some  of  the  earlier  investigations  and  the  sub- 
sequent propaganda  throughout  the  state,  we  have  the  improved  prac- 
tise of  the  shallow  cultivation  of  corn,  as  against  the  old  "root- 
butchering"  method  of  deep  cultivation.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  to 
this  one  thing  alone  Illinois  and  other  corn-growing  states  are  in- 
debted for  millions  of  bushels  of  corn  annually  in  increased  yields. 
Many  other  important  experiments  having  to  do  with  the  planting, 
cultivation,  and  harvesting  of  our  common  farm  crops  would  be  well 
worthy  of  mention  here  if  the  opportunity  permitted. 

HORTICULTURAL  CROPS 

In  the  production  of  our  horticultural  crops,  which  include  the 
fruits,  vegetables,  and  ornamental  plants,  many  investigations  parallel 
to  those  described  in  field  crops  have  been  carried  out.  To  give  some 
idea  of  the  extent  of  the  activities  along  this  line,  it  may  be  said  that 
nearly  fifty  bulletins  have  been  issued  covering  a  wide  range  of  topics 
related  to  one  phase  or  another  of  horticultural  production.  Fertilizer 
experiments  have  been  conducted  in  the  orchard,  in  the  garden,  and 


42  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

in  the  greenhouse ;  varieties  have  been  tested ;  the  cultivation  of  orch- 
ards has  been  investigated ;  systems  of  garden  planting  have  been  tried 
out.  In  plant  breeding,  very  extensive  investigations  in  the  breeding 
of  fruit  trees  are  under  way.  As  products  of  this  work  an  instructive 
bulletin  on  "Apple  Bud  Selection"  and  another  on  "Seed  Production 
in  Apples"  have  been  published. 

As  might  be  expected,  a  very  large  volume  of  the  work  with  these 
horticultural  crops  has  had  to  do  with  their  protection  from  diseases 
and  insects.  For  this  work  the  Illinois  Experiment  Station  has  been 
peculiarly  fortunate  in  having  had  the  life-long  service  of  two  of  the 
foremost  scientists — indeed,  world  authorities  in  their  respective  fields 
— who  have  devoted  themselves  to  a  study  of  plant  protection  from 
bacterial  and  fungous  diseases,  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  insect 
ravages  on  the  other.  Hundreds  of  appreciative  farmers  from  all 
over  Illinois  as  well  as  from  other  states  honor  this  grand  team  of 
workers — Thomas  Jonathan  Burrill  and  Stephen  Alfred  Forbes. 

To  Dr.  Burrill  is  given  the  credit  for  that  great  scientific  dis- 
covery that  certain  plant  diseases  are  caused  by  bacterial  organisms. 
It  is  natural  that  under  such  leadership  a  strong  development  of  this 
line  of  work  should  occur.  It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection 
that  thirty-four  years  ago  this  Station  published  a  bulletin  entitled 
"A  Bacterial  Disease  of  Corn"  written  by  Dr.  Burrill.  Within  the 
past  few  years  there  has  been  a  great  revival  of  interest  in  corn  dis- 
eases and  today  "the  air  is  full  of  talk,"  on  this  subject.  Likewise 
many  years  ago  Dr.  Forbes  began  his  observations  on  the  insect 
pests  that  ravish  our  crops,  and  this  early  work  has  been  followed  by 
that  splendid  series  of  studies  covering  the  insect  depredations  of  the 
various  classes  of  our  economic  crops,  the  grain  and  hay  crops  as  well 
as  the  fruit  crops. 

Thus  it  has  come  about  that  the  investigation  of  orchard  spraying 
for  protection  from  diseases  and  insect  pests  has  loomed  large  in  the 
program  of  our  horticultural  staff.  This  work  may  be  briefly  sum- 
marized in  a  quotation  taken  from  a  recent  report. 

"Experiments  to  determine  the  best  methods  of  controlling  in- 
sects and  diseases  attacking  apple  orchards  have  been  conducted  in  a 
systematic  manner  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  the  results  of  these 
experiments  have  been  the  chief  source  of  information  upon  which  the 
apple  growers  of  the  state  have  depended  for  guidance  in  their  spray- 
ing operations.  A  definite  spray  program  has  been  prepared  which 
has  helped  very  materially  in  putting  apple  growing  on  a  paying  basis 
in  Illinois.  The  commercial  apple  crop  of  the  state  is  valued  at  ap- 


THE  EXPERIMENT  STATION  43 

proximately  $10,000,000  annually,  and  at  a  very  conservative  estimate 
at  least  one-third  of  this  value  may  be  attributed  directly  to  the  ap- 
plication of  the  protective  measures  based  upon  the  experimental  work 
of  the  Experiment  Station." 

ANIMAL  PRODUCTION 

Investigations  pertaining  to  the  production  of  live  stock  has  had 
a  large  place  in  the  Station's  affairs  from  the  beginning.  In  fact  the 
very  first  bulletin  put  out  reporting  the  results  of  an  investigation  was 
on  the  subject  of  ensilage.  This  has  been  followed  by  more  elaborate 
studies,  increasing  in  intricacy  according  to  the  demands  of  developing 
knowledge.  During  the  years  under  our  consideration  great  changes 
have  taken  place  in  scientific  thought  relative  to  food  values  in  re- 
lation to  composition.  We  take  pride  in  the  progressiveness  of  our 
nutrition  investigators  in  keeping  up  with  the  procession  of  changing 
ideas.  They  have  run  the  whole  gamut  of  these  new  ideas,  from 
enzymes  and  special  proteids,  to  vitamines ;  and  we  find  their  bulletins 
always  making  real,  up-to-date  contributions  to  the  knowledge  of  their 
day.  In  the  later  experiments  on  feeding,  no  little  consideration  has 
been  given  to  critical  studies  of  methods  used  and  analysis  of  results 
obtained,  the  importance  of  which  is  coming  more  and  more  to  be 
recognized  in  all  kinds  of  scientific  research.  (I  cannot  refrain  from 
taking  opportunity  at  this  point  to  observe  that  if  our  Experiment  Sta- 
tion work  is  to  carry  the  stamp  of  thoroness  and  reliability,  the 
public  must  exercise  some  patience  at  times  in  awaiting  results  that 
must  first  be  scrutinized  for  scientific  accuracy  by  the  best  methods 
known  to  science  before  they  are  given  out  for  publication.) 

The  improvement  of  live  stock  through  breeding  has  also  re- 
ceived attention,  and  many  splendid  specimens  of  their  respective 
classes  have  been  produced.  Through  the  establishment  of  a  division 
of  genetics,  thorogoing  investigations  have  been  undertaken  to  learn 
the  fundamental  principles  underlying  the  art  of  breeding.  Just  so 
far  as  these  genetic  principles  are  discovered  and  applied,  just  that 
much  will  the  breeding  art  be  advanced. 

A  most  practical  experiment  in  the  breeding  of  cattle  to  learn 
the  genetic  behavior  of  the  milk-producing  functions  of  the  dairy  cow 
is  now  in  progress,  and  the  information  to  be  derived  from  these  ex- 
periments must  have  a  far-reaching  effect  upon  the  future  dairy  in- 
dustry. 


44  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

A  division  of  animal  pathology  has  only  very  recently  been  es- 
tablished. However,  its  influence  has  already  been  felt,  not  only 
within  the  state,  but  throughout  the  country.  The  importance  of  its 
investigations  of  the  botulism  disease,  which  has  resulted  in  the  saving 
of  human  lives  as  well  as  of  animals,  has  attracted  widespread  pub- 
licity. 

As  among  the  most  appreciated  investigations  of  the  Station,  be- 
cause of  its  direct  practical  significance  to  the  live-stock  industry  of 
the  country,  must  be  mentioned  the  work  reported  in  that  fine  series 
of  bulletins  dealing  with  the  market  grades  and  classes  and  of  the 
various  kinds  of  live  stock:  horses,  cattle,  swine,  and  sheep.  This 
work  has  been  of  untold  value  in  bringing  order  out  of  what  was 
formerly  chaos  in  the  marketing  of  live  stock. 

The  dairy  cow  came  in  early,  and  has  remained  through  the  years, 
for  a  large  share  of  the  Station's  attention.  The  long  series  of  in- 
vestigations on  the  individuality  among  cows  as  to  milk  production, 
with  the  propaganda  against  the  "boarder  cow"  has  had  a  profound 
effect  on  the  dairy  industry.  It  has  led  to  that  modern  device  for 
dairy  improvement  known  as  the  cow-testing  association,  and  "boarder 
cows"  by  the  hundreds  are  being  led  to  the  shambles. 

Another  activity  for  the  benefit  of  the  dairy  industry  has  been  the 
incessant  war  waged  against  unclean  and  unsanitary  milk.  Mention 
should  also  be  made  here  of  the  studies  in  the  economics  of  milk  pro- 
duction, for  the  data  stand  as  a  source  of  information  not  alone  for 
the  dairyman  but  also  for  the  benefit  of  the  general  public  in  the 
solution  of  problems  pertaining  to  its  economic  welfare. 

FARM  ORGANIZATION 

We  come  to  the  last  of  the  divisions  of  our  discussion ;  namely, 
farm  organization.  The  department  representing  this  work  in  the 
Experiment  Station  is  still  very  young;  nevertheless,  it  was  "well 
born"  and  got  into  action  promptly,  so  that  it  is  already  making  con- 
tributions for  the  solution  of  those  agricultural  problems  that  lie 
within  its  province.  Its  studies  in  cost  accounting  have  been  of 
direct  value  in  leading  to  better  methods  of  land  valuation.  They 
have  also  been  helpful  in  developing  plans  looking  toward  the  stabili- 
zation of  markets.  A  special  study  has  been  made  in  comparing 
tractors  and  horses  as  sources  of  farm  power.  As  time  goes  on,  the 
agricultural  public  will  look  more  and  more  to  the  Department  of 


THE  EXPERIMENT  STATION  45 

Farm  Organization  and  Management  for  information  along  many 
lines,  to  assist  in  solving  its  economic  problems. 

CONCLUSION 

In  dealing  in  this  hasty  way  with  such  a  variety  of  topics  in  an 
attempt  to  cover  the  ground,  I  realize  that  this  discussion  must  read 
somewhat  like  a  dictionary.  I  also  fully  recognize  the  fact  that  I 
have  been  unable  to  do  justice  to  many  of  the  topics  mentioned ;  and 
further,  that  injustice  has  been  done  in  the  omission  of  many  topics 
that  might  have  been  mentioned.  The  particular  points  mentioned 
were  selected  largely  to  serve  as  illustrations.  Another  person  would 
doubtless  have  selected  other  points  for  mention.  Therefore  no  one 
should  infer  that  this  brief  review  is  intended  to  be  a  perfect  epitome 
of  the  Experiment  Station's  most  valuable  work. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  no  very  satisfactory  device  for 
measuring,  either  in  terms  of  bushels  or  of  dollars,  the  tremendous  re- 
turns resulting  from  these  investigations.  Stories  of  this  kind  are 
usually  made  more  interesting  by  translating  into  terms  of  millions 
of  dollars.  Having  at  hand  in  most  cases  no  sound  basis  for  such  a 
translation,  I  have  necessarily  been  contented  in  setting  forth  the 
economic  value  of  these  investigations  in  rather  general  terms. 

If  in  this  hasty  review  there  has  been  left  a  general  impression  of 
the  nature  and  the  scope  of  the  Experiment  Station  work,  during  its 
thirty-four  years  of  existence,  the  purpose  will  have  been  accomplished. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF 
AGRICULTURE 

FRED  H.  RANKIN,  Superintendent  of  Agricultural  College  Extension 

T  has  been  the  destiny  of  Illinois  to  be  intimately  associ- 
ated with  that  great  educational  movement  which  culmin- 
ated in  "An  Act  donating  public  lands  to  the  several 
States  and  territories  which  may  provide  Colleges  for  the 
benefit  of  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts."  There 
is  an  inscription  upon  the  cornice  of  the  Agricultural  build- 
ing of  the  University  of  Illinois  which  reads  "Industrial  education 
prepares  the  way  for  a  millennium  of  labor."  These  words  of 
Jonathan  B.  Turner,  of  Jacksonville,  who  was  intimately  associated 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Land  Grant  Colleges,  stand  forth  as  a 
constant  reminder  that  the  material  resources  of  a  people  can  never 
be  fully  developed  without  the  aid  of  trained  intelligence. 

The  University  of  Illinois,  known  at  that  time  as  the  Illinois  In- 
dustrial University,  first  opened  its  doors  to  students  in  1868.  Agri- 
cultural education  and  the  direct  application  of  science  to  the  affairs 
of  agriculture  have  come  up  in  our  country  through  great  tribulations. 
The  early  records  show  that  when  the  institution  was  first  officially 
opened,  Willard  F.  Bliss,  of  Nokomis,  Illinois,  was  elected  professor 
of  agriculture.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  had  traveled  ex- 
tensively, was  trained  in  the  classics,  and  was  owner  and  manager  of  a 
large  farm  in  Montgomery  county.  Mr.  Bliss  took  up  the  task 
assigned  him  with  much  hesitation.  Actual  contact  with  the  matters 
involved  did  not  decrease  the  difficulties,  and  at  the  end  of  his  first 
year  he  considered  it  necessary  to  return  to  his  own  home. 

Jonathan  Periam  was  the  first  real  employe  of  the  Agricultural 
College.  He  served  in  this  capacity  until  March,  1869.  In  1870, 
Dr.  Manley  Miles  was  made  professor  of  agriculture  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  he  should  serve  during  the  fall  and  winter  months, 
dividing  his  time  between  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College  and  this 
institution.  However,  later  it  became  understood  that  Dr.  Miles 
could  not  accept  this  engagement.  Strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  fill 
his  place.  Matters  drifted  for  two  or  three  years;  and  again,  in  1874, 
Dr.  Miles  served  as  professor  of  agriculture.  In  the  meantime  affairs 
of  "practical  agriculture,"  as  the  phrase  was,  had  been  intrusted  to  the 
head  farmer,  and  one  and  another  such  employes,  as  temporary 
director  of  field  experiments. 

46 


THE  COLLEGE  47 

In  1876  George  E.  Morrow,  then  professor  of  agriculture  at 
Iowa  State  College,  was  elected  to  the  professorship  in  agriculture  and 
retained  this  office  during  eighteen  consecutive  years.  He  was  a 
singularly  gifted  man  in  many  ways,  and  these  included  qualifications 
needful  in  the  arduous  and  difficult  task  which  he  undertook  to  per- 
form. There  were  encouragements  as  well  as  discouragements.  It 
is  not  in  place  at  this  time  to  attempt  a  complete  story.  However,  at 
the  close  of  his  long  career,  he  could  not  see  that  in  the  actual  and 
plainly  observable  condition  of  things  his  expectations  had  been  just- 
ified nor  his  favorable  anticipations  fulfilled.  Too  much  was  ex- 
pected and  the  end  sought  too  great.  There  was  a  woeful  want  of 
understanding  in  regard  to  what  one  man  could  and  could  not  do. 
Superficiality  prevailed.  No  one  as  yet  realized  the  unavoidable  cost 
of  agricultural  education  given  in  anything  like  a  thoroly  sensible  way. 
A  lecture  room  with  a  desk,  some  chairs  (not  very  many),  a  few  charts 
and  pictures  hung  upon  the  walls,  and  a  half-dozen  books  upon  agricul- 
ture,— these  constituted  the  equipment  of  the  professor  of  agriculture, 
aside  from  a  few  things  to  be  found  in  the  way  of  a  Jersey  bull  in  the 
barn  and  some  weedy  fence  corners  around  the  plots.  It  was  nc 
wonder  that  students  were  few  and  enthusiasm  at  low  ebb. 

Without  further  enumeration,  it  may  be  said  that  the  agricultural 
education  of  the  first  quarter  of  a  century  in  our  Land  Grant  Col- 
leges was  poor  and  halting,  probably  because  it  was  before  its  time. 
The  inertia  of  the  ages  was  upon  it.  There  was  need  of  a  self- 
regenerating  power. 

THE  FIRST  DEAN  AND  DIRECTOR 

It  should  not  be  inferred  from  its  faults  and  deficiencies  that  lit- 
tle had  been  done  or  gained.  Yet  it  is  true  that  there  existed  a  want 
of  apprehension,  inconceivable  to  us  today,  of  things  as  vital  then  as 
now,  and  in  that  sense  there  was  somnolence  and  apathy  instead  of 
vision  and  vigor. 

At  this  stage  in  development  Eugene  Davenport  was  called  to 
the  University  of  Illinois  as  dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and 
director  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  The  new  dean  had 
grown  to  young  manhood  on  a  Michigan  farm,  and  had  paid  his  own 
way  through  the  Michigan  Agricultural  College,  graduating  with  the 
class  of  1878.  He  had  farmed  for  ten  years  on  his  own  account, 
taught  school  in  winter,  and  meanwhile  as  teacher,  farmer,  and  citi- 
zen had  been  vigorously  active  in  rural  affairs. 


48  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

After  serving  as  professor  of  agriculture  and  director  of  the  Ag- 
ricultural Experiment  Station  in  connection  with  his  Alma  Mater, 
and  later  spending  a  year  in  Brazil,  attempting  to  organize  a  govern- 
ment agricultural  college  (which  proved  premature  in  that  country 
owing  to  changing  political  regime),  he  had  just  returned  to  America 
by  way  of  England  when  destiny  stepped  in,  opportunity  beckoned,  and 
the  broad  prairies  of  Illinois  presented  their  vista.  He  came ;  and  be- 
hold, he  found  less  than  a  dozen  students,  no  buildings,  no  equipment 
of  any  kind.  He  was  told  to  go  ahead  and  make  bricks,  but  to  make 
them  without  straw.  Later  on,  after  straw  began  to  be  supplied  from 
outside  sources  as  a  result  of  his  own  activities,  there  was  somewhat  of 
opposition  to  be  overcome  from  the  executive  office  of  the  University 
in  its  ideals  and  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  support  which  the  progress 
of  agricultural  education  required. 

CONDITIONS  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  NINETIES 

Reviewing  the  condition  of  things  in  the  middle  nineties,  the 
state  was  preeminently  an  agricultural  one.  The  people  were  largely 
of  the  progressive  type  and  tendency — a  good  many  of  them.  The 
Agricultural  College  was  on  the  campus  of  a  rapidly  growing  Uni- 
versity. There  was  sympathy  and  encouragement  on  the  side  of  many 
members  of  the  faculty,  notably  in  the  personal  interest  of  Dr.  T.  J. 
Burrill.  The  University  was  beginning  actually  to  push  forward  the 
agricultural  interests.  Our  more  progressive  farmers,  and  others 
whose  business  or  professional  activities  made  them  recognized  pro- 
moters of  agriculture,  were  not  numerous  in  the  state,  but  there  were 
men  here  and  there  of  real  and  growing  power,  enthusiastic  rural 
men  who  had  a  force  and  whose  influence  had  important  bearing  on 
subsequent  developments.  These  and  other  farmers  were  beginning 
earnestly  to  better  themselves;  they  had  already  in  1895  planned  the 
organization  of  a  State  Farmers'  Institute,  with  legislative  support. 
The  agricultural  press  was  assuming  a  more  friendly  attitude.  The 
state  legislature  was  beginning  to  demonstrate  a  new  interest  toward 
the  University  but  was  yet  apathetic  toward  the  agricultural  interests. 

What  if  there  were  no  distinctive  Agricultural  College  buildings, 
no  separately  designated  College  funds,  but  few  agricultural  students, 
and  little  favorable  inside  or  outside  consideration? 

After  the  University  had  been  founded  for  over  thirty  years,  some 
of  the  progressive  citizens  began  to  realize  that  they  had  some  per- 
sonal responsibility  in  an  institution  which  was  supported  by  them  as 
tax  payers.  A  committee  from  the  State  Farmers'  Institute  and  other 


THE  COLLEGE  49 

organizations  visited  the  institution,  investigated,  and  reported.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  say  much  about  what  they  found,  or  rather  what 
they  did  not  find.  When  the  farmers  heard  about  it  through  their 
organization,  a  movement  to  right  things,  sane,  intelligent,  determined, 
irresistible,  was  begun. 

In  1895,  the  trustees  had  asked  the  legislature  for  $40,000  for  a 
dairy  building.  This  was  scarcely  considered.  Two  years  later,  they 
had  asked  for  $80,000  for  an  agricultural  building.  The  effort 
failed,  many  farmers  and  farmers'  institutes  opposing  it.  Two  years 
later,  and  for  the  third  time,  the  trustees  asked  for  an  agricultural 
building,  fixing  the  amount  at  $100,000.  The  farmers  and  the  State 
Farmers'  Institute  officially  endorsed  the  asking;  it  was  supported  by 
every  state  agricultural  organization.  A  campaign  of  education  com- 
menced throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  state.  By  careful 
study  it  became  evident  that  $100$00  would  not  be  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide what  was  needed,  and  the  estimate  was  raised  to  $150,000  dur- 
ing the  campaign.  Resolutions  were  passed,  favorable  to  this  asking, 
at  every  county  institute  held  in  the  state,  with  one  exception.  Finally, 
the  bill  passed  the  General  Assembly  without  amendment  and  with 
only  one  dissenting  vote.  When  this  vote  was  taken  and  the  building 
planned,  there  were  but  nineteen  students  in  the  College  of  Agricul- 
ture. 

In  those  days  it  was  easier  to  build  a  dreadnaught  than  a  College 
of  Agriculture.  Interest  could  be  aroused  in  two  continents  in  solv- 
ing a  problem  of  aerial  navigation,  but  it  was  difficult  to  get  the  people 
to  support  the  proposition  of  spending  money  in  developing  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  in  order  to  increase  the  productive  capacity  of 
its  people, — for  in  this  farmers  were  not  alone  interested  since  in  the 
last  analysis  all  prosperity  rests  upon  a  successful  agriculture.  Agri- 
cultural education  stands  not  only  for  that  industry  but  for  all  things 
needful  and  contemporaneous  in  the  development  of  intelligent  and 
patriotic  citizens.  The  preponderance  of  human  ideals  and  human 
efforts  is,  I  believe,  always  toward  the  good ;  and  the  prevailing  course 
and  tendency  of  human  institutions  is  toward  the  better.  Enterprises 
may  sometimes  seem  to  go  zigzag,  to  go  wrong  end  foremost,  or  at 
times  to  remain  stationary  or  go  backwards ;  but  ultimately  we  shall 
get  onward  and  upward.  The  best  things  come  not  at  once,  but  by 
evolution,  step  by  step,  from  imperfection  to  excellence.  Agriculture 
in  its  beginning  was  simple  indeed ;  but  in  its  higher  development  we 
see  it  growing  complex,  comprehensible,  drawing  to  its  aid,  assimilat- 
ing, and  rendering  subservient  all  our  leading  sciences  of  chemistry, 


50  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

botany,  physics,  bacteriology,  and  becoming  in  its  vast  development 
ultimately  the  "master  science." 

In  those  earlier  days  we  were  turning  to  a  new  agriculture,  an 
agriculture  which  was  lighted  and  glorified  by  science;  and  to  this 
new  agriculture  the  Agricultural  College  and  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station  was  to  be  the  main  gate  way.  Many  farmers  who 
watched  the  work  of  the  institution,  and  who  applied  to  their  own 
business  those  teachings  that  might  be  applicable,  soon  came  to  be  en- 
thusiastic friends  of  the  institution;  and  thus  was  developed  a  wise 
public  policy  which  from  time  to  time  gave  more  liberal  support  to 
the  Agricultural  College  and  Experiment  Station.  The  advocates  of 
this  education  stood  upon  the  high  ground  that  agriculture  and  in- 
dustry in  general  should  be  studied  toward,  and  developed  from,  the 
standpoint  of  public  policy ;  and  the  principle  was  enunciated  that  in- 
stitutions of  learning  and  research  existed  primarily,  not  for  the  bene- 
fit of  particular  individuals,  but  in  order  to  develop  certain  fields  of 
knowledge,  such  as  agriculture,  science,  economics,  literature,  etc.,  and 
to  stimulate  their  influence  among  the  people. 

Agricultural  education  was  bringing  to  the  attention  of  the  peo- 
ple a  new  standard  of  life  for  all  men.  The  old  idea,  held  by  many, 
that  the  highest  life  consists  in  withdrawing  from  one's  fellows,  in 
spending  one's  days  in  contemplation,  in  leading  a  life  which  begins 
and  ends  with  the  individual  in  some  hopeless  attempt  to  solve  the 
infinite,  was  fast  passing  away.  Agricultural  education  introduced 
into  the  world  the  gospel  of  service  and  of  doing  things,  and  demon- 
strated that  industry  and  service  detract  nothing  whatever  from  art 
and  refinement. 

New  problems  constantly  arose  for  adjustment,  in  taking  this 
education  and  using  it  for  the  benefit  of  all  men  and  the  development 
of  industry.  It  was  found  that  perhaps  the  most  fundamental  means 
for  extending  new  knowledge  among  the  people  is  the  students  who 
come  to  the  College  and  are  educated  in  it.  These  students  are  not 
educated  so  much  for  their  own  sake  as  that  they  may  go  out  and  carry 
into  their  generation  the  best  that  the  present  has  to  give.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  for  the  business  of  instruction  in  general  no  method  of 
propagating  truth  among  the  people  is  so  effective  as  that  which  goes 
out  from  the  classroom  and  laboratories  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  young  men  and  women.  These  young  people  go  out  and  begin 
new  lives;  and  while  the  Experiment  Station  and  the  scientists  dis- 
cover agricultural  improvements,  knowledge  of  which  is  spread  by 
means  of  publications  and  the  Agricultural  Extension  Service,  yet  we 


THE  COLLEGE  51 

believe  that  it  is  safe  to  say  that  after  all  the  most  powerful  agents  of 
progress  that  the  University  sends  out  are  its  well-trained  young  men 
and  young  women,  when  they  are  settled  upon  the  farms  of  Illinois. 
These  were  the  ideals  which  inspired  a  few  men  in  those  early 
days  with  an  immovable  determination  to  develop  agriculture  and 
agricultural  education  in  Illinois;  and  the  energy  with  which  they 
prosecuted  this  public  service  in  their  generation  was  analogous  almost 
to  the  energy  and  faith  of  martyrs.  All  honor  to  the  men  who  in  the 
last  quarter  century  gave  so  freely  of  their  time  and  service  to  this  end  : 
Colonel  Morrison,  W.  H.  Fulkerson,  Lafayette  Funk,  John  R.  Tan- 
ner, Ames  F.  Moore,  S.  Noble  King,  Charles  F.  Mills,  James  H. 
Coolidge,  E.  E.  Chester,  A.  P.  Grout,  L.  H.  Kerrick,  James  Carter, 
Frank  H.  Hall,  Fred  Hatch,  E.  B.  Vorhees,  H.  A.  Aldrich,  H.  M. 
Dunlap,  Jacob  Zeigler,  H.  A.  Winter,  and  many  others.  In  the  lead 
of  these  men  and  associated  with  them  have  been  many  others  who 
carried  on  the  work  which  they  so  ably  began,  whose  names  it  would 
be  impossible  to  enumerate. 

THE  GROWTH  IN  STUDENTS 

Following  this  renaissance  in  agriculture  in  the  nineties,  there 
came  to  the  College  of  Agriculture  such  earnest  workers  as  Daven- 
port, Blair,  Hopkins,  Mumford,  Frasier,  and  Miss  Bevier;  and  they 
in  turn  brought  to  the  faculty  in  each  of  their  respective  departments 
an  excellent  corps  of  young  instructors,  many  of  them  already  well 
known  for  eminent  service  in  agriculture,  and  all  learned  and  skilled 
in  the  art  and  devoted  to  it.  How  rapidly  the  attendance  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  increased  is  indicated  by  the  following  table: 

Year           Students  Registered  Graduating  Class  Graduate  Students 

90-91  720 

95-96  14  0  0 

00-01  159  4  0 

05-06  430  24  9 

10-11  729  51  28 

15-16  1,257  188  75 

20-21  1,184-  176  54 

Students  are  now  coming  from  almost  every  county  in  the  state, 
most  of  the  states  in  the  union,  and  from  many  foreign  countries ;  and 
it  is  significant  that  over  50  per  cent  of  the  four-year  graduates  are  re- 
turning and  residing  upon  farms,  over  25  per  cent  are  engaged  in 
some  phase  of  agricultural  activity,  such  as  county  advisory  work, 
teaching  of  agriculture  in  vocation  schools,  or  agricultural  investiga- 


52  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

tfon  work.  Some  carefully  compiled  statistics  made  just  prior  to  the 
war  revealed  the  fact  that  over  85  per  cent  of  the  graduates  at  that 
time  were  following  agriculture  directly  or  were  engaged  in  some 
phase  of  agricultural  work. 

SOME  OF  THE  GUIDING  INFLUENCES 

The  College  of  Agriculture  engages  in  three  distinct  lines  of 
work:  (1)  the  regular  teaching  in  college  courses  of  the  students 
who  come  here;  (2)  the  investigation  of  and  research  into  agricul- 
tural problems;  (3)  extension  work.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this 
paper  to  dwell  in  detail  upon  any  particular  phase  of  this  service,  but 
to  touch  in  a  general  way  upon  some  of  the  fundamental  things  which 
have  guided  the  policy  of  the  institution.  Perhaps  it  may  be  said  in 
passing  that  there  was  a  time  in  the  early  history  when,  but  for  wise 
direction,  the  funds  available  for  agricultural  education  would  have 
been  diverted;  and  instead  of  there  being  instruction  of  University 
standard,  there  would  have  been  simply  short-course  work  or  high 
school  agricultural  courses  offered. 

While  closely  related  to  the  Experiment  Station,  yet  we  consider 
that  one  of  the  most  fundamental  policies  attempted  in  the  College  as 
well  as  in  the  Station  is  a  system  which  is  unique  at  Illinois,  namely, 
that  of  having  an  advisory  committee  relationship  for  each  of  the  de- 
partments, some  three  to  five  representative  citizens  being  invited  to 
act  in  an  advisory  capacity  with  the  department  whose  interests  they 
especially  represent.  These  men  are  conversant  with  the  practical 
problems  which  confront  them,  upon  which  they  especially  desire  in- 
formation. They  act  as  a  balance,  representing  the  interests  of  the 
practical  man  as  against  the  man  whose  thoughts  and  interests  lie  more 
in  science  and  theory.  This  relationship  has  been  a  most  happy  and 
profitable  one,  and  it  probably  has  done  more  toward  fostering  the 
close  personal  interest  of  the  citizens  in  the  work  of  the  College  than 
has  any  other  one  thing. 

Another  most  valuable  asset  has  been  what  is  known  as  the  Corn 
Growers'  and  Stockmen's  Convention,  or  two  weeks  course  in  Ag- 
riculture, which  has  met  annually  at  the  University  for  the  past 
twenty-one  years.  Several  hundred  young  men  and  farmers  have  at- 
tended this  meeting  and  have  received  inspiration  and  incentive  and 
an  insight  into  the  work  of  the  institution  which  otherwise  could  not 
have  been  attained.  In  this  respect  again  Illinois  has  been  a  pioneer. 

As  these  movements  for  agricultural  education  were  undertaken, 
they  made  a  profound  impression ;  citizens  welcomed  this  type  of  ed- 


THE  COLLEGE  53 

ucation  more  heartily  than  ever  before,  and  its  influence  throughout 
the  state  was  everywhere  great.  One  of  the  first  reasons  for  this 
change  was  that  the  value  of  education  along  agricultural  lines  was 
brought  more  distinctly  home  to  the  farmers  through  the  work  of  the 
farmers  institutes,  state  agricultural  associations,  and  other  early  ex- 
tension agencies.  It  was  no  longer  simply  a  question  of  increased 
production  on  the  farm ;  but  rather,  in  addition  to  that,  a  building  of 
strong,  permanent,  and  intelligent  leadership  in  agricultural  communi- 
ties, studying  and  solving  those  questions  which  relate  to  the  larger 
life  of  our  agricultural  people;  in  short,  more  attention  was  being 
given  to  the  importance  of  the  human  side  of  agricultural  progress 
which,  in  turn,  had  a  profound  effect  upon  the  work  of  all  the 
agencies  for  agricultural  education.  This  human  side  of  agricultural 
progress,  as  contrasted  with  the  narrow  question  of  merely  increased 
production,  has  had  a  profound  influence  in  shaping  newer  lines  of 
extension  service,  such  as  a  series  of  one-day  farmers'  institutes, 
farmers'  clubs,  community  meetings ;  specially  organized  and  planned 
institutes  for  boys  and  girls  with  corn  and  various  judging  contests; 
personal  visits  to  homes ;  boys'  State  Fair  schools ;  short  courses  in  ag- 
riculture, of  which  the  College  conducted  over  sixty  in  one  year; 
farmers'  encampments ;  seed,  soil,  and  dairy  trains  run  over  all  of  the 
principal  railway  lines  of  the  state ;  and  the  organization  of  excursion 
parties  to  visit  the  University. 

THE  NEWER  PROBLEMS  AND  LINES  OF  SERVICE 

The  so-called  stock  information  in  agriculture  concerning  crop 
production,  live-stock  judging,  soils,  etc.,  is  pretty  well  known.  There 
is  active  and  unanswered  as  yet  a  demand  for  information  along  such 
lines  as  cost  accounting,  cooperation,  marketing,  retail  delivery  ser- 
vice, overland  truck  service ;  taxation  and  public  expenditure ;  housing ; 
and  also  a  demand  for  a  study  of  conditions  within  the  state,  includ- 
ing the  sources  of  raw  material,  transportation  records  and  rates,  vari- 
ations in  retail  prices,  etc.  These  are  simply  a  few  of  the  problems 
that  confront  us  in  an  economic  way  that  must  be  solved  by  the  young 
men  of  the  next  generation  or  two. 

Time  will  not  permit  the  enumeration  of  the  new  and  large  de- 
partments and  lines  of  work  in  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  the 
activities  which  are  being  directed  especially  to  the  betterment  of  the 
farmers,  along  research  and  investigational  lines ;  nor  of  the  ways  in 
which  through  the  Extension  Service  it  is  making  known  to  the  citi- 
zens of  the  state  the  results  of  its  investigations.  The  courses  of 


54  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

study  as  offered  in  the  College  are  revised  from  time  to  time,  and 
standing  committees  are  constantly  seeking  to  study  and  improve  the 
curricula  and  methods  of  teaching.  There  is  offered  landscape 
gardening,  which  has  for  its  primary  object  the  improvement  and 
adornment  of  the  home  ground ;  the  same  applies  to  the  curriculum  in 
floriculture.  Household  organization  and  activities,  and  home  eco- 
nomics are  subjects  which  apply  alike  to  every  household  in  the  state. 
The  work  of  the  College,  therefore,  in  a  broad  way  applies  to  all 
citizens  and  cannot  be  regarded  as  favoring  one  class  to  the  exclusion 
of  another.  The  Agricultural  Extension  Service  and  the  county 
farm  advisers  are  now  organized  in  some  ninety-five  of  the  one 
hundred  and  two  counties  in  the  state. 

Citizens  of  the  state  visit  the  University  and  its  Experiment  Sta- 
tion in  large  numbers.  It  is  conservative  to  say  that  not  less  than  ten 
thousand  people  annually  come  to  the  twin  cities  primarily  because  of 
its  Agricultural  College  and  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  The 
visits  to  such  an  institution,  if  for  but  a  single  day,  do  much  in  arous- 
ing and  redirecting  the  dormant  energies  of  mind. 

THE  CONTRIBUTION  OF  EUGENE  DAVENPORT 

The  accomplishments  of  the  past  twenty-five  years  in  agricultural 
education  have  not  just  happened  nor  just  come  to  pass ;  they  have  been 
the  result  of  wise  guidance  and  leadership.  Somebody's  watchful- 
ness, somebody's  thoughtfulness,  somebody's  thoroness  is  always  re- 
quired. While  many  men  have  contributed  to  the  development  of 
agricultural  education  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  I  do  not  feel 
it  proper  to  make  these  general  observations  without  referring  to  the 
skilful  management  and  organizing  ability  of  Dean  Eugene  Daven- 
port, who  is  abundantly  entitled  to  all  the  credit  he  may  ever  receive 
for  the  splendid  upbuilding  of  the  great  Agricultural  College  of  the 
University  of  Illinois ;  and  for  the  unique  and  unsurpassed  service  that 
he  has  rendered  in  the  promotion  of  agricultural  interests  and  of 
the  affairs  of  the  state  at  large.  Looking  backward  it  little  matters 
who  was  governor  of  the  state  for  four  or  eight  years,  but  it  is  of  in- 
finite concern  to  Illinois  citizenry  as  to  who  for  the  past  twenty-seven 
years  outlined  the  plans  for  the  development  of  our  agricultural  in- 
dustry, how  it  should  be  studied,  taught,  and  developed  from  the 
standpoint  of  public  policy. 

While  agriculture  has  grown  greatly  in  Illinois,  as  a  result  of 
this  guidance,  Dean  Davenport  has  also  largely  contributed  to  the 
wealth  and  worth  of  community  life  and  social  well-being  in  the  way 


THE  COLLEGE  55 

of  projecting  his  personality  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  thousands 
of  young  men  and  women  and  older  people  who  have  come  into  direct 
contact  with  him  and  are  proud  to  do  him  honor  as  a  modest  citizen 
who  has  led  an  inspiring,  wholesome  life  and  who  has  efficiently  dis- 
charged day  by  day  the  duties  of  his  office  which  he  has  skilfully  ad- 
ministered and  so  highly  magnified.  He  has  established  an  honorable, 
rightly  earned,  and  widely  recognized  name.  His  ability  as  an  or- 
ganizer has  probably  given  him  a  good  share  of  his  reputation,  and  it 
is  no  doubt  true  that  some  of  the  larger  results  of  his  intelligently 
directed  efforts  have  been  indirectly  achieved  through  the  organization 
and  direction  of  others,  while  he  has  been  but  little  in  evidence  per- 
sonally, preferring  to  allow  other  people  to  have  the  credit  for  what 
he  had  really  originated. 

Gathered  here  today  we  see,  tho  incomplete,  an  outline  of  what 
the  founders  and  leaders  of  such  ati  institution  as  the  College  of  Ag- 
riculture endeavored  to  establish.  Let  us  in  prophetic  vision  con- 
template it  as  it  will  appear  when  generations  have  perfected  it  in  all 
its  magnificence,  its  glories,  its  good  to  man  and  to  all  men  of  all 
classes,  in  its  power  to  evolve  and  diffuse  practical  knowledge  and 
skill,  culture  and  appreciation  and  better  love  of  industry  and  sound 
morality,  as  voiced  not  only  through  its  research,  its  instruction,  and 
its  extension  service,  but  through  its  thousands  of  graduates  in  every 
pursuit  of  life.  Then  let  us  seriously  ask,  is  not  such  an  object 
worthy  of  at  least  the  best  efforts  we  have  and  worthy  of  a  state  which 
God  himself  in  the  very  act  of  creation  designed  to  be  among  the  lead- 
ing agricultural  and  industrial  commonwealths  on  the  face  of  the 
Globe? 


NEWER  PROBLEMS  IN  SOIL  TREATMENT 

FRANK  I.  MANN,  Oilman 

HE  GREATEST  asset  any  nation  ever  had  is  that  which 
the  United  States  had  in  the  fertility  of  her  soils ;  it  is  the 
basis  on  which  rest  all  other  assets,  whether  of  bank,  of 
railroad  or  of  manufacture.  The  importance  of  this  asset, 
and  the  rate  at  which  it  is  being  exhausted,  entitles  it  to 
consideration  as  a  national  problem,  not  only  for  agriculture 
but  for  all  industries.  We  are  now  drawing  on  this  asset  and  have 
done  so  for  many  years ;  we  have  sold  the  products,  for  domestic  con- 
sumption and  for  export,  for  less  than  any  reasonable  cost  of  replace- 
ment. This  is  a  wanton  waste,  which  must  some  time  be  reflected  in 
the  decreasing  prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  people.  The  value  of 
this  asset  is  largely  expressed  in  the  organic  matter  of  the  soils ;  and  that 
which  is  of  greatest  value  in  the  organic  matter  is  the  element  of  nitro- 
gen. The  ultimate  problem  in  food  production  is  the  fixation  of  at- 
mospheric carbon  by  the  plants,  and  when  we  remember  that,  as  a 
broad  proposition,  nitrogen,  with  a  small  amount  of  minerals,  is  the 
usual  measure  of  the  fixation  of  carbon,  we  can  realize  the  great  im- 
portance of  its  maintenance. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  the  virgin  soils  of  the  United  States 
contained  about  550  million  tons  of  the  element  nitrogen;  and  they 
are  now  estimated  to  contain  about  275  million  tons,  which  is  a  re- 
duction to  one-half  the  original  amount.  When  we  spread  this  present 
total  over  all  the  cropping  land  in  the  country,  it  gives  an  average  of 
about  2,000  pounds  per  acre;  and  when  we  make  allowance  for  the 
larger  amounts  in  the  richer  soils  of  what  is  termed  the  corn  belt,  the 
northwestern  wheat  belt,  and  the  alluvial  soils  variously  distributed, 
it  gives  about  1,500  pounds  per  acre  for  the  remaining  land,  which  con- 
stitutes by  far  the  largest  area.  This  area  largely  comprizes  the 
Eastern  states,  the  country  south  of  the  Ohio  and  Missouri  rivers,  and 
parts  of  the  states  bounding  these  rivers  on  the  north.  This  means 
that  the  lands  in  this  large  area  do  not  now  contain  enough  nitrogen 
to  give  fair  returns  from  their  operation.  These  figures  indicate  that 
we  have  already  exhausted  about  one-half  of  our  greatest  national 
asset. 

If  we  take  the  total  crops  produced  each  year  and  calculate  the 
total  amount  of  nitrogen  required  to  form  the  finished  product,  we 
have  a  total  of  about  three  million  tons ;  that  is,  there  is  annually  re- 
moved from  the  soils  about  this  amount  of  nitrogen.  If  we  calculate, 

56 


NEWER  SOIL  PROBLEMS  57 

as  best  we  can,  the  amount  returned  from  various  sources,  in  legume 
crops,  farm  manures,  and  several  forms  of  commercial  nitrogen,  it 
seems  impossible  to  reach  a  total  of  more  than  two  million  tons ;  this 
leaves  an  annual  deficit  of  about  one  million  tons  of  nitrogen.  When 
we  remember  that  production  is  based  on  the  use  of  a  small  percentage 
of  the  total  supply  each  year,  we  can  realize  better  the  importance  of 
having  a  large  total  supply  in  order  that  the  small  percentage  may  be 
adequate  for  profitable  production.  I  am  aware  that  some  of  these 
calculations  have  been  made  from  rather  crude  data ;  but  it  is  one  of 
the  problems  of  agriculture  to  ascertain  the  truth,  and  to  either  dis- 
prove or  confirm  the  calculations  already  made. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  MAINTAINING  AND  INCREASING  THE 
NITROGEN  SUPPLY 

The  problem  of  the  nitrogen  supply  naturally  divides  itself  into 
two  lines ;  one,  the  conservation  of  the  natural  supply ;  the  other,  a  res- 
toration through  new  supplies.  As  the  nitrogen  is  included  in  the 
organic  matter  of  the  soil,  it  is  a  frequent  custom  to  apply  various 
agents  to  those  soils  low  in  organic  matter  that  will  hasten  the  de- 
composition of  the  organic  matter,  so  that  more  nitrogen  can  be  re- 
covered than  under  natural  processes.  The  agents  so  used  are  acid- 
ulated fertilizers,  green  cover  and  catch  crops  plowed  under,  lime  in 
caustic  forms ;  and  sometimes  even  clover  and  farm  manures  are  used 
for  the  purpose.  On  much  of  the  poorer  land,  where  the  amount  of 
available  nitrogen  is  the  measure  of  crop  growth,  it  is  being  found 
more  profitable  to  continue  the  process  of  breaking  down  the  organic 
matter  by  using  more  and  more  of  these  agents  designed  to  secure 
nitrogen,  than  it  is  to  supply  nitrogen.  In  the  end,  and  the  end  is 
coming  soon  on  much  of  the  land,  the  organic  matter  becomes  so  low 
that  stimulation  is  not  effective,  and  complete  fertilizers  must  be  used 
to  provide  each  deficient  element  in  the  quantity  needed  for  the  crop. 
In  general,  such  crops  do  not  pay  the  cost  of  the  fertilizer.  It  is  nqt 
contended  that  there  is  no  legitimate  use  for  these  various  stimulating 
agents,  for  some  of  them  have  great  value,  and  there  is  a  proper  place 
for  them;  but  it  is  one  of  the  problems  of  agriculture  to  determine 
their  proper  use  and  their  improper  use. 

A  common  reply  to  the  problem  of  restoring  nitrogen  to  the  soils 
has  been  to  let  the  legumes  do  it.  It  is  true  that  nitrogen  can  be  added 
to  soils  by  means  of  legume  crops ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  legume  plants 
prefer  available  soil  nitrogen  to  air  or  bacterial  nitrogen,  and  are 
likely  to  use  the  soil  nitrogen  before  using  the  other  source.  If  this 


58  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

is  true,  it  looks  like  an  enormous  undertaking  to  restore  to  the  soils 
the  net  loss  of  a  million  tons  annually  by  the  growth  of  legumes.  It 
would  seem  a  difficult  matter  even  to  maintain  a  nitrogen  supply  in 
soils  having  a  large  productive  capacity,  and  well  nigh  impossible  to 
build  up  a  poor  soil  to  a  very  high  productive  capacity.  To  pass  the 
answer  to  legumes  does  not  solve  the  problem  of  adequate  nitrogen 
restoration.  On  a  soil  rich  enough  to  give  up  sufficient  nitrogen  for  a 
hundred-bushel  crop  of  corn,  how  much  nitrogen  will  be  fixed  by  a 
four-ton  crop  of  clover,  when  the  nitrogen  requirements  are  about  the 
same  for  both  crops  ?  Or  on  fifty-bushel  corn  land,  how  much  will  be 
fixed  when  only  two  tons  of  clover  are  grown  ? 

To  keep  any  type  of  soil  up  to  a  high  productiveness  it  is  neces- 
sary to  grow  more  or  less  of  the  deep-rooting  legume  crops  for  other 
purposes  than  the  fixation  of  nitrogen;  and  it  seems  that  the  amount 
of  legumes  necessary  for  these  other  purposes  is  considerably  less  than 
the  amount  required  to  maintain  a  nitrogen  supply.  Will  it  be  found 
profitable,  then,  to  supplement  legume  nitrogen  with  artificially  fixed 
nitrogen?  If  the  promise  to  fix  artificial  nitrogen  at  about  five  cents 
per  pound  at  the  Muscle  Shoals  plant  be  realized,  what  effect  will  it 
have  on  the  future  of  agriculture?  Will  the  tendency  be  to  replace 
legume  nitrogen  entirely,  or  will  it  still  find  a  profitable  use  ?  With 
this  cheap  nitrogen,  would  the  farmers  be  able  to  produce  fixed  carbon 
cheaply  enough  for  it  to  be  converted  into  motor  fuel  without  eco- 
nomic ruin  to  the  farming  business  ? 

MAINTAINING  FERTILITY  BELOW  THE  PLOW  LINE 

A  problem  of  great  importance  in  the  future  will  be  to  maintain 
the  fertility  in  that  part  of  the  soil  which  lies  below  the  plowed  por- 
tion. The  productiveness  of  the  corn-belt  soils  has  been  due  in  great 
measure  to  the  depth  of  their  fertility;  and  especially  in  seasons  of 
drouth  is  deep  fertility  a  factor,  because  the  deeper  crop  roots  not  only 
secure  more  food  but  are  able  to  secure  more  moisture  when  needed. 
Plant  food  is  constantly  removed  from  the  surface  soil  and  below  by 
ordinary  cropping ;  it  is  moved  upward  and  stored  in  the  mature  crop, 
which  is  taken  from  the  land.  The  surface,  or  plowed  soil,  may  be 
kept  rich  by  plowing  under  organic  matter  in  various  forms  and  by 
adding  other  forms  of  plant  food ;  but  with  the  exception  of  limestone, 
this  method  does  not  materially  improve  the  soil  below  the  line  of 
plowing.  At  Rothamsted  where  15.7  tons  of  manure  per  acre  were 
added  annually  for  fifty  years,  the  soil  analyses  at  the  beginning  and 
the  end  of  the  period  showed  no  material  gain  in  any  element  of  plant 


NEWER  SOIL  PROBLEMS  59 

food  below  the  plow  line,  but  showed  a  loss  of  some  elements. 

While  the  general  movement  of  plant  food  is  upward,  from  the 
roots  to  the  tops,  in  general  cropping,  there  is  a  reversed  movement 
from  the  tops  to  the  roots  in  the  case  of  deep-rooting  perennial  legume 
plants  during  the  fall  in  preparation  for  winter  maintenance  and 
future  growth.  To  what  extent  we  can  utilize  this  habit  of  certain 
plants  will  need  investigation.  We  know  that  limestone  will  sink 
into  the  deep  soil,  in  the  form  of  hard  water,  from  a  supply  main- 
tained at  the  surface,  but  we  need  also  to  have  active  organic  matter, 
nitrogen,  and  phosphorus  added  to  the  deeper  soil  if  we  want  a  deep 
root  development  on  our  grain  plants.  A  single  instance  is  not  proof 
but  it  is  indicative:  A  field  on  which  has  been  grown  a  rotation  of 
corn,  oats,  wheat,  and  clover  (which  was  mostly  alfalfa),  with  the 
late  growth  plowed  under  after  translocation  for  winter  had  been 
made ;  on  which  limestone  was  maintained  at  the  surface,  and  to  which 
one  ton  of  raw  phosphate  was  applied  during  each  rotation  until  five 
tons  had  been  applied, — showed  by  a  single  analysis,  that  there  were 
about  twenty  tons  more  organic  matter  per  acre  and  about  twice  as 
much  phosphorus  and  sulfur  in  the  soil  below  the  plowed  soil  where 
treatment  had  been  made  as  described  above,  than  on  the  check  half- 
acre  which  had  had  the  same  rotation  but  no  mineral  treatments. 

AN  OPPORTUNITY  FOR  THE  PLANT  PHYSIOLOGIST 

In  the  study  of  the  plants  themselves  there  is  a  wonderful  oppor- 
tunity for  the  plant  physiologist  to  solve  many  of  the  problems  now 
perplexing  us;  and  when  we  come  to  the  relations  between  the  soil, 
with  all  its  factors,  and  the  plant,  there  is  a  field  almost  untrodden. 
It  is  conceded  that  sweet  and  acid  reactions  in  animal  bodies  are 
factors  in  resisting  diseases.  Are  plants  also  enabled  by  these  different 
reactions  to  resist  plant  diseases,  more  or  less?  And  what  are  the  re- 
lations of  the  soil  to  these  reactions?  In  plants  the  changing  of 
sugars  to  starches  and  oils,  and  of  oils  and  starches  to  sugars,  is  in- 
fluenced by  a  number  of  factors,  with  temperature  an  apparent  factor. 
What  are  the  relations  between  the  soil,  climate,  and  latitude,  and 
these  factors?  If  quality  of  grains  depends  on  maturity,  and  ma- 
turity depends  on  the  change  from  sugars  to  starches  and  oils,  we  must 
knowr  more  about  the  factors  which  induce  maturity,  if  we  are  to  grow 
grains  of  high  quality. 

Many  seeds  and  plants  which  prepare  for  a  dormant  period  dur- 
ing the  winter  do  not  grow  well  again  until  some  changes  have  taken 
place  during  the  period  of  dormancy.  Winter  wheat,  if  sown  in  the 


60  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

growing  season  of  spring  does  not  form  grain,  nor  does  it  produce 
well  when  sown  in  the  fall  if  the  winter  be  without  cold  weather. 
Spring  wheat,  when  sown  late,  may  make  as  much  growth  of  straw 
as  does  that  sown  early  but  it  does  not  produce  as  much  grain  in  pro- 
portion as  does  the  early  sown.  Hardy  trees  and  shrubs  do  not  grow 
so  well  in  the  spring  after  being  kept  from  frost  during  the  winter  as 
they  do  after  they  have  endured  normal  outside  conditions.  What 
are  the  problems  involved  in  these  changes,  and  is  there  any  application 
to  be  made  to  any  extent  to  such  other  crops  as  corn,  oats,  etc.  ? 

Each  grain  or  seed  is  a  product  of  parental  mating,  and  with 
plants  the  same  laws  prevail  as  in  the  mating  of  animals.  We  have 
studied  the  succession  of  visible  characters  under  the  laws  supposed  to 
govern ;  but  has  any  attention  been  given  to  mating  to  secure  those 
invisible  characters — if  they  are  invisible — on  which  depend  such 
things  as  longevity,  the  inherent  tendency  to  overcome  adversity,  to 
resist  diseases,  and  to  show  strength  in  development  in  the  face  of 
adverse  environment?  Should  we  not  study  plants  with  reference 
to  their  vitativeness,  if  in  doing  so  we  may  find  some  of  the  factors  of 
immunity  to  diseases  of  many  kinds? 


BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING 

CHARLES  A.  EWING,  Decatur 

S  A  THEME  for  this  occasion  I  have  chosen — farming,  a 
retrospect  and  prospect.  And  I  will  attempt  a  resume  of 
some  of  the  problems  arising  in  the  leasing  and  operating  of 
a  number  of  typical  corn-belt  farms,  and  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  concerning  them;  and  then,  tho  not  blest  with 
the  gift  of  prophecy,  I  will  mention  some  things  that 
seem  to  me  not  far  ahead  for  all  of  us  engaged  in  farming, 
whether  as  grain  farmers  or  as  stockmen.  As  the  convictions  or  con- 
clusions of  others  are  the  more  readily  evaluated  by  knowing  on  what 
experience  -they  are  based,  and  how  they  were  arrived  at,  I  will  ask 
your  indulgence  for  beginning  at  the  beginning,  and  your  pardon  for 
being  so  much  in  the  story. 

A  record  yield  on  a  small  tract  of  from  one  to  ten  acres,  or  a 
single  prize  steer,  produced  under  artificial  conditions  which  do  not, 
or  cannot,  and  ofttimes  should  not,  prevail  in  general  farm  practise, 
to  my  mind  are  illustrative  of  nothing  in  particular.  If  this  tale  be 
worth  the  telling,  it  is  because  the  farms  of  which  I  shall  speak  have 
been  operated  not  as  a  hobby  but  as  a  business.  The  endeavor  has 
been  to  conserve  and  build  up  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  provide  a  rea- 
sonably comfortable  home  for  the  tenant  and  his  family,  leave  him  a 
fair  opportunity,  and  make  a  reasonable  income  on  the  investment. 

In  the  operation  of  these  farms  the  practises  of  husbandry  as 
taught  and  promulgated  by  this  College  have  in  the  main  been  ad- 
hered to.  For  more  than  half  the  time,  a  record  of  yields  from  each 
field  has  been  kept,  to  determine  the  value  of  each  crop  to  the  enter- 
prise. For  several  years  on  one  of  the  larger  farms,  a  labor  record 
showing  the  man,  horse,  and  machine  hours  expended  on  the  various 
crops  and  in  carrying  on  the  work  incident  to  the  general  operation 
of  the  farm,  was  kept.  Some  large  yields  have  been  attained  on  con- 
siderable acreages,  but  the  thing  sought  after  was  to  better  the  gen- 
eral average  and  to  strengthen  the  weaker  links  in  the  chain,  realizing 
that  it  is  only  the  net  return  per  acre  made  by  a  system  of  cropping 
that  does  not  deplete  the  soil,  which  in  the  end  tells  the  story  of  suc- 
cess or  failure. 

61 


62  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

FARM  BUSINESS  CONDITIONS  DURING  THE  PAST  QUARTER 
OF  A  CENTURY 

It  was  in  the  fall  of  1896,  now  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  that 
I  began  to  take  an  active  interest  in  the  operation  and  management 
of  several  thousand  acres  of  central  Illinois  land,  tho  the  responsibility 
for  its  management  was  not  assumed  until  a  few  years  later.  The 
land  did  not  lie  in  one  body  but  in  tracts  ranging  from  forty  acres  up 
to  more  than  a  section.  Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  conditions 
existing  in  the  farming  business  at  that  time,  for  they  were  worse  then 
than  now. 

Some  of  you  may  recall  a  decline  in  the  markets  for  farm  produce 
that  began  about  1889  and  lasted  without  very  marked  improvement 
until  after  1897.  During  that  time  the  barometer  of  farm  business 
seemed  wholly  unable  to  find  its  way  into  the  fair  weather  section  of 
the  chart.  Corn  sold  for  twelve  to  fifteen  cents,  and  wheat  around 
fifty  cents ;  cattle  went  as  low  as  a  cent  and  a  half,  and  hogs  down  to 
two  and  a  half  cents  during  that  depression.  It  was  during  this  time 
that  the  abandonment  of  the  New  England  farms  commenced,  and 
hundreds  of  them  were  simply  deserted  and  left  to  revert  to  the 
bramble  and  the  briar.  Alarmed  at  this  condition,  efforts  were  made 
to  import  foreigners  to  run  the  land,  but  without  success,  and  even 
to  this  day  that  section  has  not  fully  recovered  from  the  blight  of  that 
condition.  Kansas,  during  these  years,  had  a  particularly  trying 
time,  aggravated  by  the  cyclones,  hot  winds,  grasshoppers,  and  other 
visitations  of  Providence  and  politics.  It  was  then  that  the  great 
movement  from  the  country  to  the  cities  began,  which  continued 
almost  unchecked  for  more  than  a  decade.  Then,  as  now,  Congress 
was  appealed  to  for  legislative  relief,  but  then,  as  will  be  the  case  now, 
the  recovery  was  gradual.  Now,  however,  some  measures  of  relief 
are  being  advocated  in  behalf  of  the  farmer  that,  in  the  end,  will  only 
aggravate  instead  of  ameliorate  his  condition,  among  them  being  the 
issuing  of  the  tax-exempt  securities. 

Certain  it  is  that  things  were  bad  enough,  and  there  was  not 
much  encouragement  or  incentive  to  remain  on  the  farm.  About 
everybody  left  who  could,  but  a  good  many,  then  as  now,  were  in 
much  the  same  position  as  the  fellow  who  had  the  bull  by  the  tail. 
He  couldn't  let  go.  In  1897,  some  of  the  best  land  in  the  estate  was 
offered  for  sale  and  brought  from  sixty-five  to  seventy  dollars  per  acre ; 
but  even  at  those  figures  it  was  considered  better  to  sell  than  to  try 
to  make  it  pay  interest  on  that  valuation. 


BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  63 

At  the  outset  it  was  necessary  for  a  period  of  several  years  to 
make  an  annual  accounting  in  the  probate  court;  and  this  was  most 
fortunate,  for  it  proved  to  be  a  lesson  of  the  greatest  value.  It  com- 
pelled keeping  a  careful  record  of  the  incomes  and  outgoes,  and  of 
profits  and  losses.  The  value  of  a  performance  record  was  soon  rec- 
ognized as  being  necessary  for  a  study  of  the  business,  to  determine 
what  part  of  the  operation  was  paying  and  what  was  not ;  and  if  not, 
why  not.  Systems  already  prepared  were  not  available  then,  nor  were 
there  many  to  whom  to  turn  for  advice  about  it ;  so  we  worked  out  a 
system  of  our  own  to  serve  the  purpose.  For  keeping  a  record  of  the 
cash  transactions  a  regular  double  entry  system  was  used.  To  keep 
a  performance  record,  the  farms  were  laid  out  in  forty-acre  fields; 
these  were  numbered,  and  each  year  the  crop,  its  yield,  value,  and 
fertilizer  applications,  if  any,  were  noted.  A  business-like  method  of 
accounting,  of  striking  balances,  of  taking  inventories,  and  of  analysis 
of  profit  and  loss  is  just  as  important  in  the  handling  of  a  farm  as  it 
is  essential  to  the  intelligent  handling  of  any  other  business.  The 
information  made  available  by  a  good  record  of  performance  is  the 
basis  of  intelligent  farm  management,  and  that  is  the  basis  of  both 
safety  and  success.  Any  college  of  agriculture  that  does  not  include 
in  its  curriculum  a  thoro  course  of  accounting  suited  to  the  needs 
of  the  farm  business,  and  require  every  student  to  take  it,  is  lacking 
one  of  the  most  important  fundamentals.  For  if  intelligent  farm 
management  isn't  the  main,  ultimate  objective  of  a  college  of  agri- 
culture, what  is? 

The  need  of  definite  information  on  many  aspects  of  the  business 
was  keenly  felt,  so  the  acquisition  of  it  began;  but  it  came  from  so 
many  sources  in  such  different  forms — books,  bulletins,  circulars,  mag- 
azine articles,  etc. — that  soon  it  was  impossible  to  find  the  things 
wanted.  To  obviate  this  difficulty,  the  material  was  all  card-indexed 
according  to  subjects;  so  that,  for  example,  the  card  for  corn  had  a  list 
of  every  article  in  the  library  pertaining  to  that  subject.  By  this 
method,  and  almost  for  the  asking,  an  extremely  useful  library  was 
obtained. 

It  may  be  a  strain  on  the  credulity,  but  in  those  days  both  lumber 
and  labor  were  comparatively  cheap  and  money  scarce.  Buildings 
generally  on  farms  under  lease  were  of  temporary  construction.  Fre- 
quently the  landlord  would  buy  the  material  and  the  tenant,  with  the 
help  of  a  jack-of-all-trades  from  the  nearest  village,  often  called  a 
hatchet-and-saw  man,  would  build  them.  Not  much  consideration 
was  given  to  their  architecture,  location,  or  arrangement,  or  the  direc- 


64  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

tion  of  the  prevailing  summer  breeze,  with  the  result  that  it  often  re- 
quired some  determination  to  ignore  the  consciousness  of  the  prox- 
imity of  the  barn  lot  to  the  dining  room.  Painting  was  rather  ex- 
pensive and  therefore  quite  often  omitted,  which  did  not  enhance  the 
general  appearance  of  things.  The  record  soon  revealed  a  rising  tide 
of  repairs  that  demanded  attention. 

As  a  result  of  our  experience,  gained  in  the  course  of  years  and 
at  some  expense,  I  have  found  it  more  satisfactory  to  lay  out  a  build- 
ing plan  for  the  farmstead  as  a  whole,  governed  by  the  location  of 
those  improvements  already  made  and  substantial  enough  to  be  re- 
tained, and  by  the  size,  topography  and  contemplated  method  of  op- 
eration of  the  farm  itself ;  and  then  to  construct  buildings  of  a  better 
and  more  permanent  character,  with  due  regard  to  their  relationship 
to  each  other  as  to  conveniences  and  architecture.  Such  a  plan  has 
much  to  commend  it,  as  it  saves  both  regrets  and  expense  and  attains 
a  more  desirable  result  in  the  end,  for  one  is  assured  when  improve- 
ments are  made  from  time  to  time  that  they  will  be  in  the  right  place ; 
without  such  a  plan  an  unsatisfactory  arrangement  is  almost  a  cer- 
tainty. 

As  to  the  drainage,  most  of  the  tile  were  lateral  strings,  of  small 
size,  emptying  into  small  open  ditches.  Ofttimes,  the  tile  were  not 
adequate  to  take  the  water  from  the  whole  watershed  to  which 
they  were  servient,  with  the  result  that  when  the  neighbor  decided  to 
drain  his  land,  it  was  necessary  to  relay  with  a  larger  size  or  put  in 
another  extra  string.  So  with  the  tile  as  with  the  buildings,  it  was  finally 
deemed  better  to  make  a  complete  plan  first.  When  considering  the 
drainage  of  a  farm,  therefore,  a  complete  survey  of  the  entire  water- 
shed was  made,  and  on  the  basis  of  the  acreage  and  annual  rainfall  an 
estimate  of  the  sizes  of  tile  needed  to  do  the  work.  Of  course,  maps 
of  these  surveys  were  made  and  filed  for  reference  so  that  the  location 
of  the  tile  might  be  determined. 

For  years  prior  to  1896  and  since,  these  farms  have  been  operated 
as  grain  farms.  Formerly,  too  large  an  acreage  was  planted  to  corn, 
and  a  little  to  oats;  and  while  clover  was  intended  as  a  part  of  the 
system,  it  so  frequently  failed  as  to  be  almost  as  much  theory  as  prac- 
tise. Wheat  was  then  added  to  the  rotation ;  which  was  changed  as 
follows:  the  pasture  averages  about  ten  per  cent  of  the  farm,  two- 
fifths  of  the  balance  is  put  in  corn,  and  one-fifth  each  to  oats,  wheat, 
and  clover.  Thus  about  half  of  the  farm  is  in  corn  and  wheat  and  the 
other  half  in  oats,  clover,  and  pasture.  In  1905  applications  of  phos- 
phate rock  and,  soon  thereafter,  of  limestone,  were  begun  and  con- 


BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  65 

tinued  until  the  freight  rates  and  cost  made  them  prohibitive.  In 
almost  every  instance  they  have  proven  beneficial  when  properly 
applied,  one  striking  exception  being  on  a  farm  east  of  Maroa,  Illinois, 
where  the  soil  map,  when  it  became  available,  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  phosphate  content  was  already  adequate. 

The  record  soon  showed  that  the  operation  of  the  small  farm  of 
forty  to  eighty  acres  was  top-heavy  for  both  landlord  and  tenant,  as 
the  buildings,  equipment  and  other  upkeep  furnished  by  the  one,  and 
the  lack  of  opportunity  to  use  to  good  advantage  the  horses,  machinery, 
etc.,  supplied  by  the  other,  was  a  bad  bargain  both  ways.  The  net 
returns  per  acre  were  too  low  to  be  a  paying  investment,  and  the 
tenant  could  not  make  a  satisfactory  return  for  his  labor  after  paying 
the  rent  and  his  expenses.  The  small  outlying  tracts  were  then  sold, 
as  opportunity  offered,  and  where  small  farms  were  contiguous  they 
were  consolidated;  so  that  at  present  the  farms  range  in  size  from 
two  hundred  and  forty  acres  up  to  more  than  a  section.  It  might  be 
well  to  state  here  that  only  a  small  part  of  this  land,  less  than  a 
section,  belongs  to  me ;  and  my  relation  to  it,  therefore,  has  been  that 
of  a  manager,  tho  a  few  times  I  have  joined  with  the  tenant  in  leas- 
ing and  operating  some  of  the  larger  farms  for  a  time. 

Over  a  period  of  years  the  half  of  the  farm  in  corn  and  wheat 
has  paid  a  satisfactory  return ;  but  the  returns  from  the  balance  of  the 
farm,  taken  separately,  have  not  paid.  So  far,  taken  as  a  whole,  the 
corn  and  wheat  have  made  what  in  normal  times  would  be  considered 
a  fair  rate  of  interest  on  the  inventoried  values,  as  gradually  increas- 
ing yields  have  been  able  to  keep  pace  with  increasing  overhead 
charges ;  but  it  seems  doubtful  if  this  will  continue  to  be  the  case. 

Fifteen  years  ago  this  spring,  I  undertook  the  management  of 
another  considerable  body  of  land,  which  differed  in  its  previous  his- 
tory, having  been  operated  as  a  stock  farm.  The  stock  was  sold  out, 
and  for  about  seven  years  the  land  was  operated  as  a  grain  farm. 
Since  that  time  it  has  been  operated  on  a  system  of  stock  and  grain 
farming,  a  joint  interest  being  reserved  in  the  stock  with  the  tenant, 
as  follows:  The  crop  rotation  is  similar  to  that  already  explained, 
and  a  number  of  sows  and  ewes  are  kept  for  breeding  purposes,  suf- 
ficient to  pasture  the  grass  land  and  about  three-fourths  of  the  clover. 
About  half  of  the  sows  are  re-bred  for  fall  litters ;  in  the  late  summer 
or  early  fall  a  few  stock  cattle  are  bought,  and  thus  a  home  market 
is  provided  for  the  roughage.  These  farms  are  fenced  in  forty-acre 
fields,  hog  tight,  and  provided  with  a  water  system  so  that  any  field 
can  be  pastured  off. 


66  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

When  properly  equipped,  and  with  a  tenant  who  is  competent 
to  handle  stock,  this  system  is,  to  my  mind,  the  best.  Pasturing  the 
clover  is  not  only  a  more  profitable  way  to  market  it  and  makes  a 
better  return  on  the  pasture  than  the  prevailing  cash  rental,  but  it 
also  takes  off  one  of  the  peak  loads  of  the  work,  namely,  that  of  mak- 
ing hay;  and  lightens  another,  that  of  harvesting  corn  by  hogging 
some  of  it  off.  It  is  good  for  the  land,  distributes  much  of  the  manure 
where  wanted,  brings  up  the  returns  on  the  part  of  the  farm  that 
most  needs  it,  and  has  fewer  chances  for  failure  and  more  chances  for 
success  than  either  a  strictly  grain  or  a  strictly  stock  method. 

An  investigation  was  made  a  few  years  ago  under  the  direction  of 
the  University,  to  ascertain  the  number  of  acres  operated  per  horse,  on 
the  typical  farms  of  the  state;  the  reports  ranged  from  seventeen  to 
twenty-eight  acres.  The  same  year,  on  one  of  our  larger  farms  op- 
erated as  a  stock  and  grain  farm  we  were  doing  pretty  well  with  one 
horse  to  forty  acres. 

In  seeking  a  substitute  for  oats,  several  things  have  been  tried, 
with  varying  success,  among  them  cowpeas,  soybeans,  buckwheat,  and 
barley.  Out  of  six  comparative  seedings  of  oats  and  barley,  two 
years  the  returns  were  about  equal  and  four  years  the  barley  made  de- 
cidedly the  better  showing. 

TENANT  RELATIONS 

As  to  tenants,  it  has  always  been  a  custom  to-  retain  a  good  man 
as  long  as  he  is  in  sympathy  with  better  farming  practises ;  and  some 
long  relationships  of  that  character  have  existed,  several  having  ex- 
tended over  thirty  years,  and  one  tenant  has  not  far  to  go  until  he 
reaches  his  fortieth  year  on  one  of  these  farms.  These  are  unusually 
long  periods  and  except  for  divers  reasons  these  parties  would  have 
earned  and  retired  to  a  farm  of  their  own ;  for  it  has  been  my  pleasure 
to  see  a  number  start  from  the  bottom  and  accomplish  this  very  thing. 
In  farming  as  in  other  lines,  however,  not  all  men  can  accumulate,  or 
circumstance  may  circumvent  them.  In  spite  of  all  that  has  been 
said  to  the  contrary,  and  there  has  been  considerable  agitation  against 
landlords,  some  of  it  emanating  from  sources  that  should  know  better, 
a  good  farm  offered  on  a  fair  lease  affords  to  many  a  young  man  with 
a  very  limited  amount  of  capital  an  opportunity  to  go  into  business 
for  himself  under  more  favorable  conditions  than  are  found  in  almost 
any  other  line  of  endeavor. 

Right  here,  however,  is  a  question  that  will  stand  more  study. 
What  sized  farm  should  a  tenant  rent  ?  It  is  not  profitable  for  the 


BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  67 

landlord  to  rent  an  improved  forty-acre  farm;  neither  it  is  profitable 
for  the  tenant ;  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  with  the  prevailing 
high  cost  of  operation,  a  farm  of  eighty  acres  offers  but  a  scant  op- 
portunity unless  it  is  used  for  some  intensive  work,  such  as  trucking, 
or  fruit  or  poultry  raising.  I  wonder  how  many  farms  there  are  in 
this  state  so  small  or  so  poor  that  they  hold  no  reasonable  chance  of 
success.  It  is  the  men  on  these  farms  that  are  most  easily  capsized  by 
any  adverse  wind. 

During  the  period  of  my  experience  I  have  had  charge  of  con- 
siderable land  in  other  localities;  namely,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Miss- 
issippi, and  Tennessee;  and  the  disadvantage  of  being  at  such  a  dis- 
tance that  supervision  was  difficult  and  often  not  as  thoro  as  it  should 
be,  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  such  distant  holdings  are  not  desirable. 

WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE? 

In  closing  this  review  of  the  past,  I  am  conscious  that  my  efforts 
have  been  almost  wholly  directed  at  one  phase  of  the  business  of  farm- 
ing, viz.,  that  of  production.  I  am  conscious  that  the  margins  of 
profit,  never  large  as  profits  are  figured  in  most  businesses,  have  been 
crowded  down  to  the  danger  point,  if  still  visible  at  all;  that  the 
trend  of  taxes  has  been  upward,  with  alarming  rapidity;  and  that  the 
overhead  costs  of  machinery,  labor,  material,  and  repairs  have  in- 
creased very  greatly.  I  find  myself  wondering  how  long  we  farmers 
can  continue  to  ignore  these  other  sides  of  our  business,  and  go  on 
producing;  how  long  can  we  play  the  game  by  such  a  rule  and  hold 
a  winning  hand? 

What  then  of  the  future  ?  This  is  oft  best  foretold  in  the  light 
of  a  knowledge  of  the  past,  and  there  comes  to  my  mind  this  saying : 

"111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates,  and  farms  decay." 

We  are  told  that  when  darkness  settled  over  Egypt  and  she  lost  her 
place  among  the  great  nations  of  the  earth,  three  per  cent  of  her  pop- 
ulation owned  ninety-seven  per  cent  of  her  wealth.  When  Babylon 
went  down,  two  per  cent  of  her  population  owned  all  the  wealth. 
When  Persia  bowed  her  head,  one  per  cent  of  her  population  owned 
all  the  land.  When  the  great  empire  of  Rome  fell,  eighteen  hundred 
men  owned  and  controlled  all  the  then  known  world. 

What  of  our  own  country?  In  1850  our  capitalists  owned 
thirty-seven  per  cent  of  the  nation's  wealth.  In  1870,  only  twenty 


68  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

years  later,  they  owned  sixty- three  per  cent.  In  1920,  we  find  less 
than  five  per  cent  of  our  population  listed  as  paying  any  income  tax 
whatever.  Hence,  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  wealth  of  this 
country  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  some  part  of  that  five  per 
cent  of  our  population.  This  affords  much  food  for  thought,  if  we 
will  only  stop  and  think.  How,  in  this  fair  land  of  ours,  rich  in  every 
resource,  under  a  government  of,  by,  and  for  the  people,  could  such  a 
state  of  things  come  to  pass?  Interwoven  throughout  the  warp  and 
woof  of  the  political  and  industrial  history  of  the  states  and  the  nation 
since  the  reconstruction  period  following  the  Civil  War,  on  down  to 
the  present  day,  may  be  found  most  of  the  reasons  for  this  condition. 
They  are  already  matters  of  record  and  too  voluminous  to  relate  here. 
But  most  of  them  will  be  found  to  be  in  contravention  of  some  of  the 
fundamental  ideals  of  our  Government.  We  farmers,  however,  are 
not  without  blame  in  the  matter ;  our  ears  have  been  deaf  to  the  warn- 
ing long  since  uttered  by  one  of  our  leading  statesmen,  "The  price  of 
liberty  is  eternal  vigilance."  We  have  followed  the  pied  pipers  of 
party  politics,  not  knowing  or  recking  where  they  led,  and  too  often 
have  cast  our  ballots  for  measures  adverse  to  our  interests.  We  have 
for  the  most  part  ignored  every  phase  of  our  own  business,  save  but 
one,  and  that  one  circumscribed  by  the  farm  fence ;  namely,  produc- 
tion. Produce,  produce,  produce,  has  been  the  beginning  and  the  end 
of  our  thought  and  teachings,  taking  whatever  was  offered  at  the 
market,  paying  whatever  was  asked  for  what  we  needed  to  buy ;  and 
I  assert  that  such  a  method  has  in  it  the  germs  of  an  economic  slavery, 
just  as  real  and  just  as  dangerous  as  the  serfdom  of  Russia  or  the 
Sepoy  slavery  of  India.  It  is  said  that  the  Danish  farmer,  through 
his  marketing  organizations,  is  able  to  retain  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent 
of  the  value  of  his  produce,  and  that  the  American  farmer,  through 
the  lack  of  such  effective  associations,  retains  about  ten  to  twenty 
per  cent  of  their  value.  A  bushel  of  wheat  sells  for  about  one  dollar, 
while  a  bushel  of  puffed  wheat  sells  for  about  thirty  dollars. 

The  time  is  at  hand  now  when  the  other  sides  of  this  great  enter- 
prise of  farming  must  have  their  just  share  of  recognition  at  the 
hands  of  the  farmers,  and  we  must  relieve  the  business  of  the  handi- 
caps that  have  been  put  upon  it.  We  must  take  a  hand  in  shaping 
and  directing  the  course  of  our  governments,  both  state  and  national, 
in  some  measure  more  nearly  commensurate  with  our  support  of  them, 
and  see  to  it  that  agriculture  has  a  fair  chance.  The  questions  of 
transportation  by  road,  rail,  and  water  vitally  concern  farmers  and 
their  business,  as  do  also  distribution,  domestic  and  foreign  markets 


BUSINESS  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  69 

and  marketing,  foreign  trade,  foreign  exchange,  credits,  and  finances. 
These  are  some  of  the  matters  which  must  have  consideration,  not 
only  separately  but  relatively,  and  if  farmers  are  to  be  heard  on  these 
matters  they  must  affiliate  with  organizations  that  will  represent  them. 
The  organization  of  the  Farm  Bureau,  county,  state  and  national,  is 
a  step  in  the  right  direction;  but  mark  this  well,  the  doctrine  of 
opportunism  will  neither  carry  very  far,  nor  long  endure,  nor  will  it 
succeed  in  rallying  to  its  support  other  kindred  organizations.  The 
ills  that  beset  us  are  not  so  difficult  that  they  can't  be  cured,  but  we 
must  understand  them.  The  Farm  Bureaus  must  carefully  diagnose 
our  case  and  formulate  a  policy  of  treatment,  not  only  to  make  known 
to  its  members  and  others  the  principles  for  which  it  stands  and  the 
goal  it  strives  to  reach,  but  to  mark  its  own  progress  and  avoid 
meandering  from  its  course.  If  this  be  done;  if  a  plan  be  conceived 
in  wisdom,  not  aimed  to  subvert  other  lines  of  enterprise,  but  deter- 
mined to  remove  the  handicaps  under  which  agriculture,  our  greatest 
art  and  our  master  science,  has  so  long  labored ;  and  if  the  farmers 
and  stockmen  of  the  country  will  catch  the  vision  of  a  united  coopera- 
tive movement  for  their  own  and  their  country's  best  interest  and 
consecrate  themselves  to  its  support,  we  may  with  confidence  turn  our 
faces  towards  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day. 

At  this  time  and  at  this  place  we  may  ask,  What  part  in  this 
program  will  be  taken  by  the  College  of  Agriculture  ?  Let  me  remind 
you  that  these  times  of  adversity  are  not  without  their  silver  lining; 
they  are  times  of  real  progress.  It  was  after  the  hard  experiences  of 
the  period  from  1889  to  1897  that  the  renaissance  of  agricultural  edu- 
cation began,  the  growth,  development,  and  progress  of  which  have 
been  without  a  parallel  anywhere,  in  any  field  of  learning  in  the  world. 
It  was  then  that  with  but  nineteen  students  regularly  enrolled  in  the 
agricultural  course,  an  appropriation  was  asked  of  the  state,  and  given 
by  it,  to  erect  a  building  to  be  devoted  to  the  study  of  agriculture, 
which  should  be  the  largest  yet  built  for  that  purpose.  They  were 
men  of  vision  who  asked  it  and  worked  for  it,  as  were  also  they  who 
gave  it.  Let  us  not  forget,  however,  that  the  world  moves;  and 
among  other  things  come,  faster  than  we  realize  but  never  fast 
enough,  the  changes  in  our  curricula.  Each  generation  sets  up  a 
new  list  of  requirements  and  each  is  deemed  necessary  and  essential ; 
and  perhaps  at  the  time  and  under  the  conditions  prevailing  some  of 
them  are.  Were  I  to  pass  a  general  criticism  on  the  schooling  of 
today,  it  would  be  this,  and  it  applies  all  the  way  from  our  grade 
schools  on  up :  that  in  fitting  a  student  for  a  particular  line  of  work 


70  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

the  emphasis  has  been  too  much  on  the  work  and  not  enough  on  the 
student  as  a  man  and  a  future  citizen;  too  much  stress  on  material 
success,  too  little  on  his  obligations  to  society  and  the  state ;  in  short, 
too  much  on  selfish  aims  and  not  enough  on  service.  For  it  always 
has  been,  still  is,  and  will  continue  to  be  one  of  the  verities  of  life, 
that  it  matters  not  if  a  man  gain  the  whole  world,  if  he  be  lacking 
in  some  of  these  attributes  of  character  he  fails  of  success.  It  is  not 
by  what  we  have  or  acquire  in  a  material  way,  nor  yet  by  our  intel- 
lectual attainments,  but  by  what  manner  of  men  we  are,  that  we  be 
judged.  And  in  this  country  of  ours,  under  this  form  of  government, 
which  holds  so  much  of  promise  for  mankind,  but  is  as  yet  in  the 
experimental  stage,  our  ideals  and  character  as  a  people  are  vital. 

In  retrospect,  I  see  the  College  of  Agriculture,  like  the  farmer, 
with  its  attention  focused  mainly  and  largely  on  production.  In 
prospect,  I  see  it  with  a  wider  outlook  on  the  business,  grappling 
with  the  other  sides  of  farming,  sifting  them  to  the  bottom,  winnowing 
out  their  underlying  principles  and  instilling  them  into  the  minds 
of  the  young  men  who  come  here  to  be  informed  on  this  subject,  and 
from  whose  ranks  we  shall  draw  leaders,  well  trained  and  grounded 
in  these  principles,  to  carry  forward  the  cause  of  agriculture,  serve  it, 
and  ably  represent  it.  It  is  not  enough  for  the  state  to  teach  a  man 
how  to  produce ;  it  must  teach  him  how  to  protect  what  he  produces. 

Twenty  years  ago  when  the  then  new  Agricultural  Building  was 
completed,  it  was  dedicated  to  "Agriculture,  The  Master  Science"; 
and  across  its  front  it  bears  this  inscription,  "The  wealth  of  Illinois 
is  in  her  soils  and  her  safety  lies  in  their  intelligent  development." 
At  that  time,  nothing  could  have  been  more  fitting  or  appropriate,  and 
the  development  of  the  scientific  side  of  agriculture  has  borne  fruits 
of  inestimable  value.  This  work,  of  course,  must  go  on;  but  were 
it  for  me  to  say  what  should  be  the  dedication  of  the  College  for  the 
next  twenty  years,  I  should  say  "Agriculture,  our  Greatest  Business," 
and  I  would  paraphrase  the  inscription  the  present  building  bears,  as 
follows :  "The  wealth  of  Illinois  is  in  her  young  men  and  women, 
and  her  safety  lies  in  their  intelligent  development." 

To  the  business  of  agriculture  then  and  the  men  who  are  going 
to  transact  it  and  represent  it,  would  I  direct  your  attention.  In- 
stead of  doubting  if  this  prospect  can  be  realized,  I  am  full  of  hope 
that  it  will  be  and  with  confidence  await  what  lies  ahead. 


THE  FARM  BUREAU 

E.  T.  ROBBINS,  Farm  Adviser,  DeWitt  County 

EN  YEARS  of  Farm  Bureau  work  in  Illinois  are  already 
a  matter  of  history,  and  the  record  reveals  significant 
changes  in  aims  and  methods.  Begun  primarily  to  extend 
agricultural  education  among  busy  farmers,  the  Farm 
Bureau's  major  efforts  are  now  directed  in  business  chan- 
nels. This  has  been  a  logical  and  natural  change.  The 
Farmers'  Institute,  the  Short  Course  and  the  agricultural  shows  were 
already  covering  much  of  the  agricultural  extension  field.  As  soon 
as  a  Farm  Bureau  converted  a  man  to  the  use  of  limestone,  for  ex- 
ample, the  immediate  question  was  where,  when,  and  how  to  buy  it. 
When  a  Farm  Bureau  assisted  a  man  to  purchase  the  limestone,  he 
was  actually  initiated  into  its  use ;  otherwise  he  seldom  made  the  start. 
It  was  just  so  with  rock  phosphate,  alfalfa,  sweet  clover,  pasture  mix- 
tures, soybeans,  improved  varieties  of  grain,  and  pedigreed  live  stock. 
Then  followed  the  necessity  of  finding  a  market  for  any  resulting  pro- 
duct, such  as  sweet  clover  seed,  soybeans,  Percherons,  or  Shorthorns, 
whose  marketing  channels  were  not  already  well  beaten  paths.  The 
Farm  Bureau  exchange  list  quickly  established  itself  as  a  regular  and 
valuable  feature  of  the  periodical  communications  sent  to  the  members. 
County  association  live-stock  sales  became  a  necessity. 

These  business  features  of  the  work  have  tied  the  membership 
more  closely  together  than  purely  educational  projects  could  do.  Men 
will  flock  to  a  stock  show,  a  horse  race,  or  even  a  street  dog  fight ;  they 
will  attend  a  meeting  where  dollars  tell  of  business  achievement. 
Action  attracts  where  mere  mental  stimulus  is  ineffective.  But  when 
gathered  for  the  consideration  of  business  problems  of  local,  state,  or 
national  scope,  farmers  are  ready  to  grasp  incidentally  new  ideas  for 
improving  farm  production.  Agricultural  teaching  has  found  its 
most  attentive  farm  audiences  at  business  meetings. 

THE  FARM  BUREAU  BUILT  FROM  THE  GROUND  UP 

The  Farm  Bureau  is  unique  among  farm  organizations  because 
it  is  founded  upon  individual  paid  memberships,  secured  through  the 
initiative  of  natural  local  leaders.  It  is  built  from  the  ground  up,  not 
from  the  top  down.  The  overhead  organizations  of  state  and  na- 
tional scope  are  the  outgrowth  of  these  county  units,  developed  by 
them  to  concentrate  the  influence  of  the  thousands  and  millions  of  in- 

71 


72  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

dividual  farmers.  There  is  nothing  dominating  or  paternal  about 
the  Illinois  Agricultural  Association,  for  instance.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  the  mouthpiece  and  the  active  servant  of  the  individual 
farmer  and  draws  its  authority  from  him  through  the  county  Farm 
Bureau.  Its  special  work  is  to  conduct  for  the  individual  member  the 
legislative,  transportation,  and  marketing  projects  which  require  com- 
bined power. 

Rational  leadership  is  an  absolute  essential  in  Farm  Bureau  or- 
ganizations. Safe,  sane,  conservative  men  are  the  best  guides  to  steady 
the  course  of  action  suggested  by  many  enthusiastic  minds.  The  di- 
rectors of  Farm  Bureaus  and  of  their  state  and  national  associations 
have  developed  their  plans  with  commendable  care  and  patient  de- 
liberation. The  best  proof  of  this  is  the  success  of  every  important 
project  which  has  already  had  time  for  development.  Of  course, 
paid  executives  are  necessary  so  as  to  be  alwrays  on  the  job,  to  carry 
the  plans  of  the  directors  to  successful  conclusion,  and,  incidentally,  to 
suggest  new  projects  and  plans.  So  far,  there  has  been  great  respon- 
sibility placed  upon  the  farm  advisers  and  upon  the  state  and  na- 
tional paid  officials.  We  are  working  a  comparatively  new  field.  It 
is  much  more  difficult  to  work  out  a  new  and  practical  plan  of  market- 
ing, for  instance,  than  it  will  be  to  carry  it  on  twenty  years  hence, 
after  its  details  have  been  fully  tested,  improved,  and  established. 

A  DIFFUSION  OF  RESPONSIBILITY 

In  the  operation  of  county  Farm  Bureaus  the  present  tendency 
favors  a  rather  extended  diffusion  of  responsibility.  Township  and 
community  units,  with  local  chairmen  and  committees,  serve  the  gen- 
eral wishes  and  requirements  of  the  members.  Live-stock  shipping 
associations,  dairy,  and  fruit  organizations,  and  the  already  established 
cooperative  grain  companies,  with  paid  managers,  are  handling  the 
initial  process  of  cooperative  marketing  of  farm  products.  Their 
work  is  supplemented  in  a  special  field  by  the  county  breeders'  associa- 
tions, with  their  combined  advertising  and  consignment  sales ;  thereby 
virtually  guaranteeing  to  the  young  breeder  a  market  for  his  purebred 
animals.  That  alone  has  marvelously  increased  the  ranks  of  live-stock 
breeders  in  recent  years.  In  Tazewell  county,  in  hve  years,  twenty- 
four  young  men  were  added  to  the  list  of  Percheron  breeders  because 
of  the  Tazewell  County  Percheron  Association. 

In  thus  enlisting  the  services  of  many  members  of  a  community 
in  its  development  projects  and  marketing  problems,  the  Farm  Bureau 
work  derives  the  benefit  of  suggestion  and  advice  from  minds  of  var- 


THE  FARM  BUREAU  73 

ious  types  and  from  a  multiplicity  of  viewpoints.  Valuable  ideas 
have  thus  been  developed.  The  chances  of  failure  have  also  been  re- 
duced. "In  a  multitude  of  counselors  there  is  safety."  Then,  too 
division  of  responsibility  among  many  members  seems  to  be  the  very 
best  way  to  develop  strong  local  leaders,  men  who  will  become  the 
logical  ones  to  shoulder  the  cares  of  the  county,  state,  and  national 
federations. 

The  local  units  are  sure  to  be  very  important  factors  in  the 
future  life  of  the  Farm  Bureau.  It  is  through  them  that  membership 
enrolment,  the  collection  of  dues,  and  the  maintenance  of  morale  can 
be  handled  most  surely  and  economically.  The  local  leaders  and 
committees  maintain  an  intimate  and  almost  daily  contact  with  in- 
dividual members,  which  it  is  impossible  to  secure  in  any  other  way. 
The  local  committeemen  are  absolutely  necessary  in  conducting  mem- 
bership campaigns.  In  fact  if  they  should  handle  the  details  of  this 
work  with  little  outside  assistance,  it  would  probably  be  the  ideal  con- 
dition. 

Through  the  local  organizations  the  special  needs  of  the  com- 
munity, such  as  chinch  bug  control  or  any  other  local  project,  can 
best  be  ascertained  and  met.  The  burning  of  chinch  bugs,  for  ex- 
ample, is  necessarily  a  local  project,  requiring  the  cooperation  of  every 
farmer  in  the  territory.  It  cannot  succeed  in  any  other  way.  Any 
such  efforts  which  enlist  the  attention  of  a  large  share  of  the  local 
residents  serve  to  develop  and  strengthen  the  spirit  of  cooperation. 
Fortunately  this  spirit  is  already  a  factor  in  community  life,  as  dis- 
played in  exchange  of  labor  in  threshing  and  shelling.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  extend  this  fellowship  into  the  range  of  more  compre- 
hensive enterprises. 

Local  units  also  serve  to  keep  the  weak  members  in  line.  There 
is  much  opposition  to  Farm  Bureau  work  by  those  business  men  who 
fear  that  eventually  it  may  cut  into  their  profits  in  one  way  or  another. 
By  organized  propaganda  and  individual  knocking,  they  have  at- 
tempted to  discredit  cooperative  work  and  discourage  members  of 
farmers'  organizations.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  the  state  of  mind  of 
anyone  who  would  be  prejudiced  by  such  disparaging  talk  from  an  out- 
sider, but  the  actual  fact  is  that  Farm  Bureau  members  here  and 
there  have  become  dissatisfied  as  a  result  of  the  so-called  friendly  tips 
of  their  business  enemies.  Continual  boosting  by  well-informed  and 
broad-minded  local  leaders  is  necessary  in  order  effectually  to  counter- 
act the  poison  which  is  thus  steadily  injected  into  the  veins  of  farmers' 
organizations.  Little  progress  can  be  made  when  half  of  us  are  push- 


74  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

ing  forward  and  the  other  half  pushing  backward.  The  full  meas- 
ure of  success  by  the  Farm  Bureaus  can  be  attained  only  when  the 
great  majority  of  farmers  are  enthusiastic  members. 

STANDARDIZING  FARM  PRACTISES 

The  Farm  Bureaus  are  gradually  standardizing  farm  practise  in 
various  localities.  Hitherto  the  principal  accomplishment  in  this 
line  has  been  in  the  introduction  of  farm  implements  by  dealers.  The 
result  has  been  a  more  rapid  agricultural  advancement  in  the  use  of 
improved  machinery  than  in  the  adoption  of  pedigreed  live  stock,  or 
high  yielding  varieties  of  crops,  or  the  extension  of  soil  conservation 
methods.  It  is  up  to  the  Farm  Bureaus  to  convert  their  members  to 
the  use  of  those  improved  methods  which  are  not  pushed  by  salesmen ; 
and  they  will  do  it  more  conservatively  and  more  satisfactorily.  The 
same  crop  rotations  or  live-stock  interests  which  make  money  for  one 
farmer  should  also  prove  profitable  for  his  neighbor  under  similar  cir- 
cumstances. Local  demonstrations  and  community  meetings  serve  to 
convince  skeptical  neighbors  that  their  methods  can  be  improved.  One 
farmer  in  DeWitt  county  told  me  the  other  day  that  he  never  saw 
a  soybean  until  he  went  to  a  farm  demonstration  meeting  two  miles 
from  his  home,  where  the  crop  had  been  raised  continuously  for 
twelve  years. 

Some  real  persuasion  is  necessary  to  deflect  a  man  from  his  chosen 
system  of  farming,  inherited  perhaps  from  his  father.  The  business 
side  of  the  question  is  what  convinces;  and  the  Farm  Bureau  can 
present  the  problem  and  its  solution  in  dollars  and  cents  under  home 
conditions.  In  the  future  we  may  well  expect  more  progress  to  be 
made  through  farm  management  studies  based  on  actual  farm  ac- 
counts, than  by  any  other  means.  We  know  that  under  present  de- 
pressing conditions  many  farmers  are  making  nothing  on  their  in- 
vestment and  are  getting  nothing  for  their  own  work,  while  some  of 
their  neighbors  are  making  five  per  cent  and  in  addition  some  hundreds 
of  dollars  annually  to  pay  for  their  own  time.  Such  disparity  has  ap- 
peared every  year  since  farm  management  studies  were  begun.  The 
Farm  Bureau  is  peculiarly  and  almost  exclusively  situated  so  as  to 
turn  such  figures  to  practical  account  in  the  community. 

As  farmers  become  accustomed  to  calling  at  the  county  Farm 
Bureau  office  to  confer  about  their  problems,  and  form  the  habit  gen- 
erally of  attending  local  business  and  demonstration  meetings,  it  will 
be  possible  for  one  farm  adviser  to  serve  a  larger  number  of  members 
than  has  been  the  case  during  these  pioneer  years.  There  will  be  less 


THE  FARM  BUREAU  75 

farm  visiting  and  more  conferences  with  groups  of  members.  As  time 
goes  on,  we  shall  doubtless  develop  a  well  defined  system  for  main- 
taining intact  the  county  organization  and  local  units,  which  are  the 
absolutely  necessary  foundation  for  effective  state  and  national  or- 
ganizations for  legislative  and  marketing  purposes.  That  will  sim- 
plify the  work;  but  initiative,  resourcefulness,  originality,  determina- 
tion and  a  thoro  acquaintance  with  farm  problems  will  still  be  re- 
quired of  farm  advisers.  Probably  the  principal  reason  for  the  prom- 
inence of  Illinois  in  Farm  Bureau  affairs  is  that  the  men  for  this  work 
have  been  rigidly  selected  and  suitably  paid  and  have  been  expected 
to  secure  commensurate  results. 

COOPERATIVE  MARKETING  OF  FARM  PRODUCTS 

The  marketing  of  farm  products  is  certain  to  become  generally 
cooperative.  We  are  making  rapid  progress  in  this  project  because  of 
the  concerted  efforts  of  county,  state,  and  national  associations  all 
along  the  line.  Local  shipping  associations  affiliated  with  the  Farm 
Bureaus  are  already  an  assured  success  because  of  their  demonstrated 
economy  in  consigning  live  stock  to  market.  Their  membership  and 
shipments  grow  month  by  month.  The  cooperative  commission  com- 
panies so  far  established  at  the  markets  leave  no  cause  to  doubt  that 
they  will  satisfactorily,  economically,  and  permanently  bridge  the  gap 
between  live-stock  producer  and  manufacturer.  The  wool  pool  has 
weathered  a  stormy  early  life  and  emerged  into  a  smoothly  function- 
ing and  efficient  marketing  partner  of  the  Farm  Bureau.  The  I.  A. 
A.  potato  pool  last  fall  distributed  through  the  Farm  Bureaus  the  best 
potatoes  ever  bought  by  Illinois  farmers  and  at  prices  which  dealers 
could  not  meet.  The  local  cooperative  grain  companies  are  gaining 
in  number  and  prestige  through  persistent  boosting  by  Farm  Bureaus. 
The  next  great  movement,  already  well  advanced,  is  the  founding  of 
the  U.  S.  Grain  Growers,  Inc.,  whose  local  footing  and  financial 
backing  are  founded  upon  the  county  Farm  Bureaus.  The  successful 
development  of  this  project,  in  the  face  of  the  most  powerfully  financed 
opposing  propaganda  ever  confronting  American  farmers,  will  surely 
be  accomplished,  and  that  of  itself  will  be  worth  to  the  farmers  of 
America  all  the  costs  of  all  the  Farm  Bureau  work  for  all  time.  This 
immense  gain  will  not  be  secured  through  domination  of  markets  but 
through  small  economies  and  various  small  items  of  profits  incident 
to  the  transfer  of  grain  from  the  producer  to  the  consumer. 


76  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

The  Farm  Bureaus  have  led  farmers  into  greater  progress  in  the 
last  ten  years  than  in  the  thirty  years  preceding.  While  the  cost  has 
reached  a  considerable  total,  it  is  small  as  apportioned  to  each  member 
and  as  measured  in  results.  Every  Farm  Bureau  member  gets  full  re- 
turns on  his  investment,  even  if  he  makes  no  effort  to  do  so.  And  yet 
it  is  our  duty  to  make  the  work  both  economical  and  efficient  to  the 
greatest  degree.  Farm  Bureau  directors  should  not  be  mere  enthu- 
siasts ;  they  should  be  farmers  who  succeed  in  the  financial  management 
of  their  own  farms,  who  appreciate  values  and  who  can  fairly  calcu- 
late returns  on  an  investment.  We  are  now  passing  through  the  most 
expensive  period  of  Farm  Bureau  work,  just  at  the  time  when  farm 
finances  are  at  low  ebb.  In  pioneering  these  marketing  efforts,  for 
example,  we  cannot  accurately  forecast  the  returns  on  all  the  outlay 
in  cash  and  effort.  Some  expenditures  will  eventually  prove  to  have 
been  unproductive,  and  this  adds  to  the  final  cost.  It  is  much  more 
expensive  to  invent  and  try  out  new  plans  than  to  execute  old  and  es- 
tablished systems ;  but  the  initial  steps  must  somehow  be  taken  or  no 
revision  of  agricultural  methods  will  be  effected.  As  fast  as  these  new 
systems  are  developed,  it  will  be  possible  to  lop  off  introductory  fea- 
tures, and  thereby  save  much  expense.  Delegating  a  large  measure 
of  responsibility  to  the  local  marketing  units  is  calculated  to  effect 
economy  as  well  as  to  stimulate  loyalty,  and  this  principle  again  co- 
incides with  the  prominence  we  attach  to  the  local  units  in  the  Farm 
Bureau.  Overhead  control  should  not  be  sufficient  to  dominate,  but 
merely  to  coordinate  systematically  the  work  of  local  marketing 
agencies.  So  far  as  we  have  gone  in  these  projects,  these  principles 
have  been  followed.  Even  the  centralization  provided  in  the  U.  S. 
Grain  Growers,  Inc.,  extends  only  to  the  point  of  concentrating  sales 
into  sufficient  volume ;  and  full  local  representation  is  provided  in  the 
management. 

PUBLICITY  OF  SUBJECT  MATTER  AND  OF  AIMS 

Publicity  is  a  necessary  feature  of  Farm  Bureau  work.  Period- 
ical communications  from  the  county  office  are  needed  by  individual 
members  to  keep  them  fully  informed  concerning  the  business  and  ed- 
ucational features  of  the  work,  not  only  within  the  county  but  in  the 
state  and  nation  at  large.  They  should  have  in  concrete  form  such 
information  as  can  be  useful  in  improving  their  individual  businesses 
and  the  cooperative  enterprises  in  which  they  are  engaged.  This  can 
be  shaped  in  an  attractive  form  to  fit  local  conditions  and  to  anticipate 
the  inquiries  which  would  naturally  arise  from  time  to  time.  The 


THE  FARM  BUREAU  77 

county  publication  or  circular  letter  which  is  sent  to  all  of  the  mem- 
bers, not  only  supplies  the  information  and  encouragement  which 
every  individual  should  have,  but  it  furnishes  material  for  the  active 
member  to  use  in  boosting  the  Farm  Bureau  among  his  indifferent  as- 
sociates. The  more  any  member  knows  about  the  aims,  methods,  and 
accomplishments  of  his  organization,  the  greater  his  loyalty  will  be 
and  the  more  he  will  profit  from  it.  Greater  knowledge  will  also 
fortify  him  against  the  insidious  influence  of  propaganda  from  dealers 
who  oppose  him. 

The  boys'  and  girls'  clubs  carry  this  publicity  idea  into  the 
future.  They  train  the  next  generation  of  farmers  to  appreciate  the 
vast  improvement  which  is  possible  in  general  agricultural  practise. 
Club  work  cultivates  a  high  appreciation  of  fellowship  and  mutual 
interest  in  the  projects  and  problems  of  the  farm.  The  young  folks 
learn  to  keep  cost  accounts,  which  are  certain  to  stimulate  a  desire  for 
economical  and  profitable  marketing.  The  club  members  now  will 
undoubtedly  become  the  Farm  Bureau  leaders  a  few  years  hence. 
Their  present-day  interest  and  enthusiasm  are  also  sure  to  spread  to 
their  parents  and  their  associates,  so  that  the  benefit  of  club  work  is 
far-reaching. 

Publicity  in  the  local  and  county  newspapers  is  also  necessary  in 
order  to  give  the  general  public  a  fair  understanding  of  the  purposes 
of  the  farmers'  organizations.  There  are  many  who  profess  to  be- 
lieve that  a  farmer's  sole  duty  to  himself  and  the  nation  is  to  produce, 
to  take  up  his  position  between  the  corn  rows  and  in  the  feed  lot  and 
limit  his  operations  to  the  confines  of  his  line  fences.  The  general 
public  has  been  imposed  upon  so  much  in  the  past  by  various  trade 
monopolies  and  trusts  that  there  is  natural  suspicion  of  any  new  mark- 
eting venture  and  opposing  interests  make  the  most  of  this  prejudice 
in  their  propaganda.  Fortunately,  there  is  no  occult  objective  for 
farmers'  cooperative  organizations.  Efficient  and  economical  mark- 
eting is  the  aim,  and  that  cannot  injure  the  consumer.  It  will  hurt 
only  those  who  now  profit  unduly  at  the  expense  of  both  producer  and 
consumer.  Consequently,  it  is  best  for  all  concerned  to  give  general 
publicity  to  the  purposes  for  which  farmers  are  organized.  An 
honestly  enlightened  consuming  public  will  welcome  and  assist  their 
advance.  Those  whose  present  business  may  be  encroached  upon  may 
then  see  the  light  and  readjust  their  operations  along  lines  of  greater 
service  to  the  community. 


78  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

FUTURE  WORK 

There  will  always  be  plenty  of  work  for  the  Farm  Bureaus  to  do. 
Constantly  shifting  production  and  trade  problems  the  world  over  are 
sure  to  necessitate  readjustments  in  rotations,  in  live-stock  breeding 
and  feeding,  and  in  marketing  operations  from  time  to  time ;  and  the 
Farm  Bureau  is  the  logical  means  of  putting  the  necessary  changes 
promptly  into  effect.  A  feature  just  now  is  a  sensible  reduction  in 
corn  production  by  replacing  part  of  the  acreage  with  soil-improving 
legume  crops.  Only  concerted  local  agitation  and  persuasion  will  get 
us  anywhere  with  this  proposition.  If  we  had  been  sufficiently  or- 
ganized to  cut  down  the  corn  acreage  a  year  ago  when  the  need  was 
plainly  apparent  and  was  strongly  urged,  we  could  have  averted  a 
corn-belt  catastrophe.  We  must  depend  upon  the  Farm  Bureaus  to 
guide  production  along  necessary  and  profitable  channels,  without  the 
disastrous  overproduction  and  underproduction  at  times  which  have 
featured  our  agricultural  history.  When  our  lands  have  been  farmed 
longer  there  will  also  be  greater  attention  demanded  by  the  fertility 
question.  New  marketing  problems  are  sure  to  arise,  and  always 
there  will  be  the  demand  for  developing  and  introducing  those  sys- 
tems of  farm  management  which  best  conform  to  changing  economic 
conditions. 


THE  ILLINOIS  AGRICULTURAL  ASSOCIATION 

D.  O.  THOMPSON,  Secretary,  Chicago 


F  I  were  to  figure  out  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  start  of 
the  Illinois  Agricultural  Association,  so  far  as  I  can  get 
it  from  the  record  today,  I  would  go  back  to  the  graduat- 
ing class  of  '76.  If  I  were  a  philosopher,  I  would  sit 
down  and  meditate  upon  the  question  as  to  whether  the 
state  of  Illinois  could  not  well  have  built  an  institution — 
an  educational  institution — back  in  those  years,  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  graduating  one  student  in  the  year  of  '76  who  would  have  upon 
the  agriculture  of  the  state  of  Illinois  the  influence  that  that  one 
graduate  has  had.  I  believe  the  investment  in  the  whole  institution 
would  have  been  worth  while,  just  for  that  one  thing. 

Seven  years  ago  in  this  building,  for  which  the  Dean  of  Agri- 
culture and  the  Farmers'  Institute  worked  so  hard,  there  met  a  group 
of  Farm  Bureau  officers  who  had  been  coming  here  for  a  few  years 
with  the  farm  advisers  in  order  to  see  if  there  were  not  a  few  things 
which  they  had  in  common  which  they  might  discuss,  and  perhaps 
form  a  sort  of  loose  organization.  Following  that  a  meeting  was 
held  at  Ottawa.  After  much  discussion  and  argument,  the  organi- 
zation was  formed.  I  think  the  greatest  amount  of  debate  was  as  to 
whether  it  should  be  called  the  Illinois  Agricultural  Association  or 
the  Illinois  Agricultural  and  Live  Stock  Association.  Mr.  Herman 
Danforth  was  elected  president.  He  was  president  of  the  Farm 
Bureau  in  Tazewell  county;  and  Mr.  E.  T.  Robbins,  the  farm 
adviser  in  that  county,  was  elected  secretary  of  the  organization. 
Some  years  later  Mr.  John  Kirkton,  of  the  Livingston  County  Farm 
Bureau,  was  elected  president  and  Mr.  R.  C.  Bishop,  farm  adviser 
in  that  county,  was  elected  secretary.  Some  time  later,  Mr.  Kirkton 
continuing  in  office,  Mr.  Leonard,  who  was  president  of  the  Wood- 
ford  County  Farm  Bureau,  was  elected  secretary ;  and  it  was  during 
that  time,  and  immediately  after  the  war  period,  that  the  Association 
undertook  its  largest  program  of  work.  The  important  thing,  to  my 
mind,  that  happened  was  that  the  Association,  instead  of  continuing 
on  as  an  association  of  groups  of  farmers,  was  changed  to  be  an 
association  of  individual  farmer  members.  At  that  time,  Mr.  Harvey 
Sconce  was  elected  president,  and  I  was  hired  as  secretary  and  since 
that  time  have  been  trying  to  do  everything  except  to  get  the  fellows 
down  East  to  come  out  here  and  eat  their  pork  chops  out  in  the  feed 
lots. 

79 


80  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

I  am  always  glad  to  give  suggestions  as  to  what  we  should  try 
to  do.  I  gave  to  most  of  you,  a  week  ago  or  two  weeks  ago,  a  resume 
of  the  work  of  the  Association  during  the  past  year — which  was 
really  a  resume  of  three  years, — and  I  think  I  shall  not  take  time 
now  to  go  into  that.  In  my  mind  the  work  of  the  Association  is 
shaping  itself  into  some  pretty  definite  things;  and  I  can  see  in  the 
future,  at  least  a  little  way  into  the  future,  that  if  it  is  to  meet  the 
situation  as  it  should  be  met  there  must  be  some  shifts — some  changes 
in  the  form  of  the  administration  of  the  Association,  some  shifts  in 
the  lines  of  work  pursued,  and  a  very  clear-cut,  well-defined  policy 
of  work  arrived  at  during  the  coming  year,  so  that  stakes  for  the 
future  can  be  set  up  based  on  right  conclusions. 

I  believe  that  there  will  be  one  department  of  cooperative  market- 
ing in  the  Association.  Now  that  will  not  all  happen  this  year; 
but  it  is  going  to  happen  some  time  in  the  future,  when  some  of  this 
preliminary  stuff  has  been  worked  out.  And  I  know  as  well  as  I 
know  that,  that  there  will  be  a  department  of  finance,  taking  in  the 
questions  of  revenue,  taxation,  farm  financing,  and  farm  credit ;  these 
are  the  subjects  that  such  a  department  is  going  to  handle,  study  and 
put  itself  in  position  to  work  on.  It  will  have  to  follow  a  pretty 
definite  policy ;  it  must  know  pretty  definitely  where  it  is  going,  and 
then  it  must  work  to  get  there.  Then  there  will  be  a  department 
of  transportation.  The  immediate  question  before  the  house  is 
freight  rates,  but  that  is  the  least  of  our  questions.  Under  the  head 
of  transportation,  we  have  a  road  question.  The  farmer  has  a  tre- 
mendous road  question,  and  under  the  same  head  he  has  the  water- 
way question.  Transportation  in  the  future  is  going  to  mean,  in  this 
organization,  more  than  a  reduction  of  freight  rates.  Then  there  is 
going  to  be  a  general  legislative  department,  which  will  be  tied  up 
perhaps  with  the  legal  department,  perhaps  not;  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  farmers  want  the  law  tied  up  with  the  legislative  de- 
partment or  not.  But  questions  of  law  and  legislation  will  be 
grouped  fairly  close  together.  Then  there  will  be,  of  course,  the 
general  administrative  department  of  the  Association. 

Now,  I  do  not  claim  to  be  a  prophet,  but  I  am  willing  to  prophesy 
on  this  particular  thing  as  coming  true  in  the  life  of  the  Association. 
It  must  come  if  the  Association  is  going  to  serve  its  place  as  one  of 
the  several  factors  in  the  agricultural  life  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  If 
the  Association,  as  a  volunteer  association  of  farmers  of  the  state,  is 
going  to  make  the  third  point  in  the  triangle,  with  the  State  College 
of  Agriculture  and  Experiment  Station,  and  the  State  Department 


THE  I.  A.  A.  81 

of  Agriculture, — if  it  is  to  take  its  place  there,  these  things  are  going 
to  have  to  come  true.  Furthermore,  in  the  future,  the  farmers  of 
the  state  of  Illinois  are  going  to  need  to  call  more  and  more  to  ser- 
vice in  that  organization  men  who  know  the  business  aspects  of  farm- 
ing, for  these  are  business  questions  the  proper  answers  to  which  de- 
termine the  answer  to  the  question  that  is  in  the  mind  of  more  than 
one  of  my  pals,  "Can  I  afford  to  farm?  Can  I  take  a  chance  on 
farming?"  Until  that  question  can  be  answered  positively,  in  the 
affirmative,  the  young  man  hasn't  much  business  thinking  about  it. 

What  has  been  borne  in  on  me  in  fifteen  or  seventeen  years  spent 
around  among  the  farm  people  of  the  states  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Wisconsin  is  that  a  "punkin,"  no  matter  how  big  it  is  nor  how  good 
looking  it  is,  isn't  any  good  as  a  farm  product  unless  it  will  pay  a 
profit.  You  can  grow  a  better  animal  or  a  better  ear  of  corn;  and 
you  can  inspire  a  man  to  do  that;  but  unless  you  can  teach  him  how 
to  get  his  money  out  of  it  and  live,  you  haven't  taught  him  much. 

As  I  see  the  job  of  the  I.  A.  A.  in  the  future,  it  is  to  take  its 
place  as  the  third  point  of  that  triangle — the  University  and  Experi- 
ment Station,  the  State  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  here  a  vol- 
unteer association  of  farmers  in  the  I.  A.  A.  It  is  going  to  have  a 
glorious  part  to  play  in  its  time,  almost  as  glorious  as  the  pioneer  in 
the  field — that  other  great  institution  in  this  state,  the  Farmers'  In- 
stitute— played  in  its  time. 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  CROP  REPORTING 
SERVICE 

HARVEY  J.  SCONCE,  United  States  Delegate  to  the  International  Institute 
of  Agriculture  at  Rome,  Sidell 

HEN  the  American  delegation,  consisting  of  three  delegates, 
attended  the  International  Institute  of  Agriculture  at 
Rome  in  November,  1920,  they  decided  that  the  para- 
mount issue  of  this  nation  was  a  better  crop-reporting 
service  for  the  world,  and  their  united  efforts  were 
extended  in  this  direction. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly,  America  was  honored 
and  our  crop-reporting  service  was  duly  recognized  as  the  best  of  the 
entire  world,  to  the  extent  that  Mr.  L.  M.  Estebrook,  one  of  the  dele- 
gates and  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Crop  Estimates  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  at  Washington,  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  Second 
Commission  which  had  to  do  with  crop  estimates  and  statistics. 

THE  NEED  OF  ACCURATE,  COMPLETE,  AND  TIMELY  STATISTICS 

I  was  also  placed  on  this  commission  with  Mr.  Estebrook;  and 
in  an  address  to  the  General  Assembly  I  tried  to  bring  before  the 
delegates  of  the  fifty-six  nations  represented,  the  attitude  of  America 
relative  to  a  world  crop-reporting  service,  and  to  show  how  essential 
it  was  that  each  country  should  have  a  reliable  system  of  statistics 
that  would  be  accurate  and  timely.  I  outlined  the  present  condition 
to  them,  showing  that  only  a  few  countries  had  any  system  that  was 
dependable,  while  other  nations  had  little  or  no  service  whatever; 
also  that  some  of  the  countries  who  were  attempting  to  report  crop 
statistics  did  so  at  such  a  late  date  that  the  information  was  worthless 
so  far  as  the  markets  of  the  world  were  concerned.  I  attempted  to 
show  further  that  the  systems  of  different  countries  varied  in  detail 
so  much  that  by  the  time  the  reports  were  received,  the  information 
translated,  and  the  figures  of  the  foreign  nation  converted  into  the 
units  of  our  nation,  so  much  time  had  elapsed  that  the  resulting 
information  was  without  value.  I  urged  that  a  standard  system  be 
adopted,  and  that  this  service  should  embrace  a  complete  agricultural 
census:  statistics  and  estimates  of  acreage;  yields  per  acre  and  total 
production  of  all  crops  grown;  numbers  of  different  classes,  sexes, 
ages,  and  breeds  of  all  live  stock;  crop  and  live-stock  forecasting; 
farm  and  market  prices;  crop,  live-stock  and  land  values;  popula- 

82 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  SERVICE  83 

tion  and  per  capita  consumption;  imports  and  exports;  stocks  on 
hand ;  surpluses  and  deficits ;  supply  and  demand ;  trends  of  produc- 
tion, consumption,  and  prices. 

It  was  urged  that  this  information,  to  be  of  the  greatest  value 
to  the  adhering  nations  must  be  timely,  dependable,  and  unbiased,  in 
order  that  it  might  be  used  with  confidence  as  a  guide  to  production 
and  marketing  programs.  Much  information  regarding  foreign  agri- 
culture is  available  in  past  and  current  literature,  official  bulletins  and 
reports,  and  unofficial  trade  papers.  However,  a  great  deal  is  not 
available  in  any  form  and  the  information  that  is  available  is  mostly 
historical,  incomplete,  and  fragmentary,  and  neither  systematically 
arranged  nor  promptly  accessible.  In  fact,  it  is  information  that  has 
passed  its  greatest  usefulness  and  really  has  no  bearing  on  present 
conditions. 

At  present  this  nation  is  receiving  agricultural  reports  and  bulle- 
tins from  foreign  nations,  but  the  crop  reporters  are  dilatory  in  get- 
ting their  reports  ready  and  the  printers  are  also  dilatory  in  getting 
their  part  of  the  work  done.  Another  delay  is  caused  in  mailing  and 
transmitting  the  bulletins,  while  a  further  delay  is  caused  by  their 
translation ;  so  that,  by  the  time  it  is  ready  for  the  farmer,  the  grain 
merchant  and  the  business  man,  the  information  is  out  of  date  and 
worthless. 

Some  of  the  foreign  nations  have  never  taken  an  agricultural 
census,  and  others  have  done  so  only  at  infrequent  intervals.  Informa- 
tion of  this  kind  should  be  collected  at  stated  intervals  and  in  a 
standardized  manner. 

The  International  Institute  of  Agriculture  at  Rome,  organized 
in  accordance  with  the  international  treaty  promulgated  in  1908,  fur- 
nishes, through  its  monthly  and  annual  bulletins,  information  relat- 
ing to  crop  reports,  agricultural  statistics,  agricultural  technic,  dis- 
eases of  plants,  and  agricultural  economics  which  is  of  great  value. 
However,  the  reports  of  the  Institute  are  lacking  in  completeness; 
many  important  crops  are  not  covered  by  the  reports.  They  also 
lack  timeliness,  because  the  Institute  has  no  organization  and  no 
representatives  in  foreign  countries  for  collecting  data,  but  in  accord- 
ance with  the  international  treaty,  must  depend  upon  data  trans- 
mitted to  it  by  the  adhering  governments. 

As  the  adhering  governments  are  without  proper  organizations 
and  methods  for  collecting  these  data,  the  reports  of  the  Institute  can 
be  no  better  with  respect  to  accuracy,  completeness,  and  timeliness 
than  the  original  reports  transmitted  by  the  adhering  governments. 


84  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

A  STANDARD  SYSTEM  OF  CROP  REPORTING 

After  bringing  these  facts  before  the  Institute,  we  introduced  a 
resolution  which  was  afterward  adopted,  providing  that  each  adhering 
nation  should  adopt  in  the  near  future  a  standard  system  of  crop 
reporting;  that  all  the  information  should  be  telegraphically  com- 
municated to  the  Institute  not  later  than  the  tenth  of  each  month ;  and 
that  bulletins  should  be  compiled  and  distributed  to  all  the  adhering 
nations  not  later  than  the  twelfth  of  each  month.  Each  nation 
agreed  that  it  would  endeavor  to  establish  a  standard  system  as  soon 
as  it  was  possible  to  get  trained  experts  for  the  work. 

AGRICULTURAL  ATTACHES  FOR  FOREIGN  EMBASSIES 

To  further  facilitate  this  work  of  crop  reporting,  I  introduced 
a  resolution  which  was  adopted,  providing  that  agricultural  attaches 
should  be  placed  in  the  embassies  of  the  foreign  nations  to  assist  the 
adhering  nations  in  gathering  the  agricultural  statistics  and  in  bring- 
ing the  system  of  crop  reporting  to  a  greater  state  of  efficiency; 
these  attaches  to  act  also  as  agents  for  agricultural  associations  of  the 
nations  represented. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  American  consuls  in  the  various 
nations  could  assist  in  transmitting  crop  statistics,  and  there  has  been 
a  law  on  the  statute  books  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  requiring  the 
American  consuls  to  furnish  crop  reports  to  the  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture through  the  Secretary  of  State,  but  so  far  this  law  has  been 
a  dead  letter.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  the  consuls  are  appointed 
without  any  regard  to  their  knowledge  of  agriculture  and  are  not 
trained  in  agricultural  work  whatever;  therefore,  any  information 
they  might  gather  is  taken  from  newspapers,  trade  journals,  and  other 
sources  that  are  not  dependable.  They  lack  the  qualifications  neces- 
sary to  be  able  to  furnish  an  intelligent  report  on  the  agricultural 
conditions  of  a  nation  because  they  are  unable  to  understand  clearly 
what  is  wanted  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  or  to  appreciate 
the  relative  significance  and  value  of  information  which  is  accessible 
to  them. 

The  commercial  attaches  of  the  Department  of  Commerce  are 
another  possible  source  of  information.  However,  in  the  past  they 
have  rendered  no  service  of  value  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
and  very  little  if  any  to  American  agriculture.  Their  primary  func- 
tion is  to  obtain  information  useful  to  American  business  men  in 
promoting  trade  in  American  manufactures ;  which  in  itself  is  enough 


AN  INTERNATIONAL  SERVICE  85 

to  occupy  their  entire  time,  thought,  and  energy.  Their  training  is 
along  other  lines  than  agriculture,  and  in  fact  the  commercial 
attaches  who  were  interviewed  in  the  foreign  nations  by  the  dele- 
gates to  the  Institute  appeared  to  have  very  little  knowledge  of  either 
American  or  foreign  agriculture.  Without  exception,  they  appeared 
to  be  wholly  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the  farmers  of  the  United 
States  produced  in  1920  and  1921  tremendous  surpluses  for  which 
there  was  no  adequate  market  and  which  were  sold  at  ruinously  low 
prices,  causing  the  loss  of  millions  of  dollars  and  reducing  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  farmers  approximately  one-third  to  one-half ;  which 
reacted  disastrously  upon  business  in  other  industries  and  caused  the 
shutting  down  of  factories  resulting  in  widespread  unemployment. 

At  the  Institute  and  before  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations 
when  we  returned  from  Rome,  the  American  delegation  strongly 
urged  the  placing  of  agricultural  'attaches  in  foreign  nations,  these 
attaches  to  be  to  American  agriculture  what  the  commercial  attaches 
are  to  American  commerce  and  industry.  As  the  result  of  the  argu- 
ments before  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  a  small  appropria- 
tion was  made  for  this  work,  and  the  work  has  been  started  in  a 
small  way.  At  present  the  Department  of  Agriculture  has  stationed 
Mr.  Foley  in  London  and  Mr.  Bullock  in  Buenos  Aires,  and  they 
are  rendering  most  efficient  service.  For  instance,  this  past  fall  when 
the  Department  desired  prompt  information  as  to  the  newly  sown 
acreage  of  wheat  in  Argentine,  the  Department  of  Commerce  was 
notified  to  get  the  official  figures  as  soon  as  available  and  cable 
them.  At  the  same  time  the  same  question  was  asked  Mr.  Bullock, 
who  cabled  the  desired  figures  within  forty-eight  hours.  A  week 
later  the  Department  of  Commerce  wrote  that  the  Argentine  figures 
would  not  be  available  for  another  month.  This  shows  the  value  of 
having  a  man  on  the  spot  to  render  service  when  it  is  needed. 

Last  June  three  cotton  specialists  were  sent  to  the  World  Cotton 
Convention  at  Liverpool  and  the  International  Chamber  of  Commerce 
meeting  at  London.  Two  of  these  men  remained  abroad  long  enough 
to  visit  the  principal  cotton  ports  and  cotton  milling  centers  in  Europe, 
as  well  as  the  Nile  Valley  and  Palestine.  They  obtained  information 
of  much  value,  especially  with  respect  to  marketing  prospects  and 
the  possibilities  of  expanding  trade  in  cotton  in  Poland.  In  the  late 
summer  a  specialist  in  the  meat  packing  trade,  Mr.  E.  C.  Squire, 
was  sent  to  Europe.  He  has  been  collecting  and  forwarding  valuable 
data  with  respect  to  stocks  of  dairy  and  meat  products  on  hand, 
demand,  prices,  and  trade  conditions. 


86  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

In  October  Professor  G.  F.  Warren  of  Cornell  and  Mr.  W.  F. 
Callander  of  the  Bureau  of  Markets  were  sent  to  Europe  to  study 
sources  of  information,  as  well  as  public  and  private  statistical  in- 
formation on  economic  conditions,  to  arrange  with  the  various 
officials  for  the  prompt  interchange  of  crop  reports  by  mail  and  cable, 
and  to  formulate  a  systematic  plan  for  the  regular  flow  of  agricultural 
statistics  and  economic  data  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  to 
supplement  the  information  of  the  International  Institute.  Both 
Professor  Warren  and  Mr.  Callander  report  that  the  commercial 
attaches  are  not  qualified  to  obtain  information  on  agriculture  because 
of  their  limited  commercial  viewpoint. 

In  November  Mr.  Michaels,  formerly  with  the  Food  Admin- 
istration in  Russia,  was  employed  and  sent  to  Southeastern  Europe 
to  collect  and  report  upon  agricultural  conditions.  During  the  past 
summer  arrangements  have  been  made  to  have  the  commercial 
attaches  and  American  consuls  in  foreign  countries  supply  certain 
kinds  of  information  under  a  set  of  instructions  prepared  by  the 
Bureau  of  Markets. 

At  present  the  program  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  is  to 
utilize  all  existing  agencies,  such  as  the  International  Institute  of 
Agriculture,  the  commercial  attaches  and  the  consul  officers  of  the 
State  Department  so  far  as  practicable,  and  to  supplement  these 
agencies  with  agricultural  attaches  in  the  principal  countries.  The 
object  is  to  collect  information  concerning  stocks  on  hand ;  consump- 
tion requirements ;  surpluses  and  deficits ;  economic  situations  affect- 
ing production,  consumption  and  purchasing  power;  farm  prices  and 
agricultural  credit;  cooperation;  the  presence  of  plant  and  animal 
diseases  and  insect  pests ;  and  to  cable  this  information  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  together  with  important  crop  reports  and  notice 
of  material  changes  in  crop  conditions  occurring  in  the  interval 
between  official  crop  reports. 

With  the  latest  and  best  information  of  this  kind  available,  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  will  arrange  for  the  prompt  and  wide- 
spread dissemination  of  the  essential  facts  through  the  press  and 
through  regular  and  special  printed  reports.  If  we  had  at  least  fifty 
well  trained  men  in  foreign  fields  to  assist  foreign  nations  in  establish- 
ing a  reliable  crop  reporting  service,  and  to  assist  in  introducing 
American  agricultural  products  to  the  people  of  the  nations  where 
they  are  stationed  as  well  as  to  keep  American  agriculture  advised  as 
to  crop  conditions,  it  would  go  a  long  way  toward  creating  an  outlet 
for  the  great  surpluses  we  have  on  hand  at  the  present  time. 


FINANCING  FARMING 

J.  D.  PHILLIPS,  Chairman  of  the  Special  Committee  on  Farm  Finance, 
State  Division  American  Bankers  Association,  Green  Valley 


HE  farmer  the  same  as  any  other  business  man,  is  in  need 
of  funds  to  use  in  the  operation  and  development  of  his 
business.  Some  of  these  funds  are  used  on  the  commercial 
side  of  his  business  and  are  of  short-time  maturity,  and 
some  are  needed  for  the  investment  side  of  his  business  and 
naturally  extend  over  a  long  period  of  years.  Before  com- 
mencing on  the  rural  credits  end  of  this  address,  I  want  to  say  some- 
thing about  the  Federal  Reserve  Bank;  for  the  farmers  are  as  much 
interested  in  the  Federal  Reserve  System  as  they  are  in  a  system  that 
will  provide  for  them  long-time  credit  at  a  reasonable  rate  of  interest. 
The  Federal  Reserve  Banking  System  is  the  greatest  financial 
legislation  ever  enacted  into  law  in  this  or  any  other  country.  It  is 
not  perfect  of  course,  but  it  has  been  the  financial  life-saver  not  only  of 
America  but  of  the  Allied  countries  as  well,  during  the  terrible,  trying, 
distressing,  nation-wrecking  and  soul-wrecking  time  we  have  been 
recently  passing  through  in  the  World  War.  While  this  law  needs 
some  amending  before  it  will  become  attractive  to  the  country  banker, 
yet  be  that  as  it  may,  over  nine  thousand  of  the  thirty-two  thousand 
banks  of  America  are  members  of  the  system,  with  about  sixty-nine 
per  cent  of  the  banking  resources  of  the  country  connected  with  the 
Federal  Reserve  Banks.  If  in  due  time,  and  in  the  natural  course  of 
business  events,  it  is  learned  by  actual  experience  that  the  Federal 
Reserve  Banks  can  pay  a  small  rate  of  interest  on  required  reserves, 
and  such  an  amendment  should  be  enacted  into  law,  it  would  be  but 
a  very  short  time  until  every  eligible  bank  in  America  would  join  the 
system.  The  making  of  over  one  hundred  per  cent  per  annum  by 
several  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks,  during  the  past  two  years,  is 
probably  responsible  for  the  belief  that  they  will  always  be  able  to  pay 
at  least  two  per  cent  on  required  reserves  without  encroaching  on 
commercial  banking  in  any  way.  Should  the  experience  of  the  banks  in 
the  next  few  years  prove  the  fallacy  of  such  an  opinion,  it  will  of 
course  stop  the  agitation  along  these  lines  for  all  time;  but  on  the 
other  hand,  should  actual  experience,  after  due  trial,  without  hastily 
jumping  at  conclusions,  prove  the  theorists  to  be  wrong,  no  power 
on  earth  can  stop  legislation  along  the  above  named  lines. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  unwarranted  criticism,  principally 
by  politicians,  against  the  officers  of  the  Federal  Reserve  Banks  and 

87 


88  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  in  regard  to  their  dealings  with  the  agri- 
cultural needs  of  the  country,  it  being  claimed  that  the  farmer  has 
not  received  his 'just  proportion  of  assistance  during  the  trying  times 
we  are  now  passing  through.  A  careful  analysis  of  the  situation  proves 
the  very  opposite  of  this  to  be  true. 

According  to  a  report  made  by  Governor  McDougal  in  January, 
1921,  all  the  member  banks  of  a  great  agricultural  state  had  borrowed 
at  one  time  470  per  cent  of  their  reserve  deposits,  or  in  other  words 
almost  five  times  their  required  reserve ;  while  the  largest  borrowing 
bank  in  the  district  had  233.3  per  cent  of  their  reserve  deposits  bor- 
rowed and  all  member  banks  in  Chicago  had  143.8  per  cent  borrowed. 
On  October  1,  1921,  all  member  banks  of  this  agricultural  state  had 
344.4  per  cent  borrowed,  while  the  largest  bank  in  the  district  had 
21.9  per  cent  borrowed,  and  all  member  banks  in  Chicago  had  40.1 
per  cent  borrowed.  I  don't  believe  that  we  farmers  have  any  fault 
to  find  with  the  Federal  Reserve  System,  in  the  treatment  we  have 
received  through  the  country  banks,  when  the  facts  are  known. 

Another  thing,  the  Federal  Reserve  Banking  System  saved  every 
section  of  this  country  while  the  whole  world  was  going  on  to  the 
rocks  of  financial  chaos.  The  Federal  Reserve  Banks  of  the  North, 
without  compulsion  of  any  kind,  went  to  the  assistance  of  the  agri- 
cultural interests  of  the  South  and  West.  At  one  time  the  Federal 
Reserve  Bank  of  Cleveland  alone,  loaned  to  the  Reserve  Banks  of  the 
West  and  South  no  less  than  $145,800,000. 

While  the  Federal  Reserve  System  has  performed  its  duties  in 
supplying  the  farmer  and  others  with  short-time  credits,  the  Federal 
Farm  Land  Bank  has  not  done  so  well  in  supplying  funds  for  the 
permanent,  or  investment,  side  of  the  farmer's  business.  This  busi- 
ness has  been  handled  by  country  banks,  investment  bankers,  mort- 
gage loan  associations,  lawyers,  or  most  anyone  else  who  could  get 
enough  money  together  to  make  a  loan  on  the  most  favorable  terms 
possible  to  themselves.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  finding 
fault  with  the  men  in  this  kind  of  business,  because  I  am  one  of  them ; 
it  is  the  system  that  we  are  after  and  hope  to  correct  if  possible. 

For  the  past  eight  or  ten  years  I  have  been  profoundly  impressed 
with  the  need  of  some  means  whereby  the  investing  public  and  the 
holders  of  farm  mortgages  could  be  brought  together,  but  until  about 
a  year  ago  our  ideas  have  all  been  of  an  abstract  nature.  In  the 
latter  part  of  February,  1921,  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  State 
Bank  Division  of  the  American  Bankers  Association  met  in  New 
Orleans  and  this  subject  was  thoroly  discussed  by  the  farmer  member 
(your  humble  servant)  of  that  committee.  At  the  next  convention, 


FINANCING  FARMING  89 

held  in  Los  Angeles,  the  special  committee  of  five  on  Farm  Finance, 
of  which  the  speaker  is  chairman,  was  appointed. 

This  committee  met  in  Chicago,  and  after  considering  the  matter 
decided  it  would  be  better  to  develop  machinery  already  established 
than  to  build  new  machinery.  A  subcommittee  was  created  to  fur- 
ther consider  the  matter  and  recommend  whether  in  their  judgment 
an  amendment  to  the  Federal  Land  Bank  Act  was  the  right  thing. 
The  subcommittee  has  had  a  number  of  meetings  and  a  joint  con- 
ference with  a  committee  of  the  American  Farm  Bureau  Federation, 
and  our  opinion  is  that  the  law  should  be  so  amended  that  all  in- 
corporated banks  might  become  members  of  the  Federal  Farm  Land 
Banks.  Such  an  arrangement  would  immediately  provide  thousands 
of  well-equipped,  permanent,  local  headquarters  for  the  system.  It 
would  also  insure  the  services  of  experienced  financial  men,  would 
guarantee  the  making  of  safe  loans  based  on  conservative  values,  and 
would  save  all  the  overhead  costs  of  local  associations,  for  the  banks 
could  handle  the  additional  business  with  little,  if  any,  additional 
overhead  expenses.  Member  banks  would  be  required  to  subscribe 
to  the  capital  stock  of  the  Federal  Land  Bank  in  their  respective 
districts. 

Commissions  would  be  allowed  member  banks  for  originating 
mortgage  business,  the  same  as  the  law  now  provides  for  farm  loan 
associations;  and  the  same  compensation  would  be  allowed  member 
banks  for  collections  of  interest  and  amortization  payments,  the  super- 
vision of  the  payment  of  taxes,  and  the  submission  of  occasional  re- 
ports to  the  Federal  Land  Banks. 

All  the  duties  of  the  local  associations  would  be  assumed  by  the 
member  banks ;  but  while  they  would  guarantee  the  genuineness  and 
regularity  of  each  loan  they  should  not  be  required  to  guarantee  the 
payment  of  the  loan,  for  it  would  be  unwise  and  unnecessary  for  the 
banks  to  assume  this  contingent  liability.  Any  farm  loan  that  cannot 
stand  on  its  own  individual  merit,  without  the  aid  or  assistance  of 
other  loans  or  the  endorsement  of  any  organization  of  any  kind,  ought 
not  to  be  made.  Under  the  double  safeguard  of  the  judgment  of 
both  the  bank  and  the  Government,  there  could  be  no  excuse  for  ever 
losing  a  dollar  on  a  single  loan.  Under  such  a  system,  the  farmer 
would  do  his  business  through  his  local  banker,  the  one  person  to 
whom  he  prefers  to  go  with  his  financial  problems;  and  the  banker 
in  turn  could  supply  his  farmer  customers  with  the  needed  funds  for 
their  investments  without  freezing  up  the  assets  of  the  bank  to  the 
danger  point. 


90  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

There  is  no  better  security  in  the  world  than  a  farm  mortgage, 
properly  made,  not  even  a  Government  bond  itself.  While  I  have 
no  desire  to  place  any  security  above  a  Government  bond,  I  do  wish 
to  say  that  when  farm  mortgages  become  worthless  in  this  country, 
the  Government  obligation  will  have  little  or  no  value.  The  Farm 
Loan  Bonds,  based  on  such  a  security,  ought  soon  to  become  very 
popular  with  the  investing  public,  and  hence  ought  to  supply  to  the 
farmer  the  necessary  funds  for  his  investment  needs  at  a  rate  of  in- 
terest that  would  compare  favorably  with  industrial  undertakings  that 
finance  their  fixed  investments  through  long-term  bonds. 

Up  to  the  present  time  the  Federal  Land  Banks  have  sold  that 
portion  of  their  bonds  not  taken  by  the  United  States  Government, 
through  selling  syndicates  made  up  of  the  leading  bond  houses  of  the 
country,  but  a  sufficient  number  of  the  bonds  have  not  been  sold  to 
make  possible  the  continuous  operation  of  the  system.  With  a  well- 
organized  sales  force,  the  Federal  Land  Board  might  act  as  a  syndicate 
manager  of  future  selling  syndicates,  including  the  leading  bond 
houses,  mortgage  companies,  and  the  member  banks  throughout  the 
country.  Under  this  plan  each  offering  of  bonds  would  be  sold 
through  the  organization  of  a  national  selling  campaign  that  would 
carry  the  appeal  to  every  investor  in  the  land.  This  would  not  only 
insure  the  rapid  sale  of  the  bonds,  but  would  make  possible  their  dis- 
tribution at  the  lowest  underwriting  cost  consistent  with  good  service 
on  the  part  of  the  distributors.  And,  as  Mr.  George  Woodruff  said 
in  his  address  before  the  convention  of  the  American  Farm  Bureau 
Federation  at  Atlanta,  Georgia,  "In  order  that  Farm  Loan  Bonds 
might  enjoy  a  continuous  and  broad  market  it  might  eventually  be 
deemed  wise  for  the  Farm  Loan  Board  to  list  them  on  the  principal 
exchanges  of  the  country,  as  was  done  with  Liberty  Bonds,  and  their 
popularity  as  a  medium  for  safe  investment  of  the  savings  of  the 
people  should  ultimately  become  second  only  to  that  of  the  bonds  of 
the  Nation  itself." 

With  the  Federal  Land  Bank  Act  thoroly  Americanized  and 
developed  along  the  lines  I  have  been  talking  about,  we  will  have 
an  institution  rivaling,  if  you  please,  in  grandeur,  strength,  and  ability 
to  serve  along  its  particular  lines,  the  greatest  financial  institution 
ever  established  in  the  world  for  commercial  purposes,  namely,  the 
Federal  Reserve  Banking  System.  With  these  two  banking  systems 
in  the  country,  properly  functioning,  I  do  not  believe  there  will  be 
any  need  for  an  intermediate  financial  institution  to  care  for  the 
so-called  two-  and  three-year  paper  that  we  hear  so  much  talk  about 
in  political  circles. 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  FARMING  IN  SOME  OF 
ITS  LARGER  ASPECTS 

THOMAS  NIXON   CARVER,  Harvard  University 

HE  BUSINESS  problems  of  the  farmer  are  of  two  kinds, 
administrative  and  commercial.  The  first  has  to  do  with 
the  wise  direction  of  the  working  force  of  the  farm  in  the 
production  of  crops,  the  other  with  buying  and  selling.  The 
latter  grows  more  and  more  important  with  progress  be- 
cause fewer  and  fewer  things  are  produced  on  the  farm 
while,  at  the  same  time,  a  greater  and  greater  variety  of  things  are 
used  on  the  farm  or  consumed  by  the  farmer's  family.  This  requires 
more  and  more  buying  and  selling.  The  farmer's  prosperity  will 
therefore  depend  more  and  more  on"  his  skill  as  a  buyer  and  seller. 

ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS 

The  administrative  problems,  however,  are  still  of  great  im- 
portance. These  consist  in  the  directing  of  the  whole  productive 
force  on  the  farm  in  the  growing  of  crops  and  animal  products.  The 
acute  phase  of  this  problem,  however,  consists  in  paying  expenses  out  of 
receipts.  Almost  anybody  could  run  almost  any  business  if  he  did 
not  have  to  pay  the  bills.  Many  a  man  can  grow  good  crops  and 
breed  good  animals,  who  can't  keep  expenses  down  below  the  price  at 
which  they  can  be  sold.  Contrary  to  a  rather  widespread  opinion 
among  farmers,  farming  is  not  an  exception  to  the  general  rule.  It 
is  no  harder  to  pay  the  bills  out  of  the  receipts  in  farming  than  in  any 
other  business.  It  is  inherent  in  the  very  nature  of  competitive  in- 
dustry that  there  should  be  failures.  No  matter  how  good  a  business 
man  you  are,  speaking  absolutely,  if  you  are  much  below  the  average, 
speaking  relatively,  you  will  never  be  able  to  pay  your  expenses  out 
of  your  receipts.  Other  and  better  business  men  than  you  are  will 
offer  so  much  to  get  labor,  raw  materials,  machines,  equipment,  etc., 
and  offer  their  products  at  so  low  a  price,  that  you  will  be  unable  to 
stay  in  the  same  game  with  them.  Your  wage  bill,  your  deterioration 
charge,  your  interest  and  other  overhead  expenses  will  be  more  than 
your  receipts  will  cover.  If  your  competitors  were  not  quite  so  efficient 
and  would  not  offer  quite  such  high  wages  for  labor,  or  quite  such 
high  prices  for  raw  materials  and  equipment,  you  could,  of  course,  cut 
down  your  expenses.  If  at  the  same  time,  they  would  not  offer  the 
finished  product  at  quite  so  low  a  price,  you  could  increase  your  re- 

91 


92  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

ceipts;  but  the  difficulty  is  that  your  pesky  competitors  will  keep  on 
bidding  against  you,  offering  high  prices  for  what  you  have  to  buy 
and  low  prices  for  what  you  have  to  sell,  thus  forcing  you  to  the  wall 
unless  you  are  approximately  as  good  a  business  man  as  they  are.  If 
you  fall  materially  below  the  standard  set  by  them  you  will  fail. 
There  is  no  business  or  profession  to  which  this  rule  does  not  apply 
just  as  definitely  and  rigidly  as  it  does  to  farming. 

PRICES  AND  PROFITS 

This  being  the  case  there  is  no  such  thing  as  "cost  plus  ten  per 
cent,"  or  "a  living  plus  ten  per  cent"  for  any  except  the  more  capable 
farmers,  if  the  ten  per  cent  is  to  be  realized  on  the  price  of  the  land 
as  well  as  on  the  rest  of  the  investment.  There  will  always  be  a  con- 
siderable number  who  are  just  hovering  on  the  margin,  and  another 
number  who  are  below  the  margin  and  headed  toward  bankruptcy. 
This  cannot  be  prevented,  even  by  government  price  fixing.  If  the 
government  were  to  fix  the  price  of  corn  at  two  dollars  a  bushel  and 
maintain  it,  guaranteeing  to  every  farmer  without  exception  that 
price,  it  would  still  be  almost  as  difficult  for  the  inefficient  corn 
grower  as  it  is  now.  To  begin  with,  the  price  of  corn  land  would 
go  up.  If  any  of  you  own  good  corn  land,  you  would  not  sell  it 
under  those  conditions  at  the  price  which  you  are  now  willing  to  take. 
If  you  are  contemplating  buying  corn  land,  you  would  be  willing  to 
pay  a  higher  price,  under  those  conditions,  than  you  are  now  willing 
to  pay.  This  competitive  bidding  for  land  would  go  on  precisely  as 
it  does  now.  The  best  business  men  among  corn  farmers, — that  is, 
those  who  could  organize  the  working  force  of  the  farm  so  thoroly  as 
to  keep  expenses  down  or  to  get  the  largest  possible  number  of  bushels 
per  unit  of  expense — could  afford  to  pay  and  would,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  pay  a  higher  price  for  corn  land  than  the  less  capable  farmers 
could  possibly  afford  to  pay.  The  inefficient  farmer  would  have  just 
as  hard  a  time  paying  for  his  land  if  he  bought  it,  or  paying  rent  for 
his  land  if  he  rented  it,  as  he  now  has.  Again,  the  efficient  manager 
who  could  so  direct  his  labor  force  as  to  get  more  corn  per  man  em- 
ployed than  the  inefficient  farmer,  could  afford  to  pay  higher  wages 
for  his  help.  The  poorer  farmer  would  be  crowded  to  the  wall  just 
as  definitely  as  he  is  now.  He  would  find  it  just  as  hard  to  pay  these 
high  prices  for  farm  land,  and  high  wages  for  farm  labor,  and  high 
prices  for  farm  machinery,  out  of  the  receipts  of  his  two  dollar  corn 
as  he  has  in  normal  times  to  pay  the  lower  prices  or  the  lower  rents, 
wages,  etc.,  out  of  his  receipts  from  one  dollar  corn.  Of  course,  the 


LARGER  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  93 

farmer  who  gets  his  land  before  the  rise  comes,  would  enjoy  the  ad- 
vantage of  owning  higher  priced  land,  and  could  get  more  money  for 
it  if  he  ever  decided  to  sell. 

THE  UNIT  OF  ORGANIZATION 

Again,  this  is  not  peculiar  to  farming.  The  efficiency  with  which 
the  farmer  organizes  and  directs  the  working  force  of  his  farm  has 
many  phases,  and  depends  upon  the  solution  of  a  vast  number  of  de- 
tailed problems.  Almost  every  business,  if  it  is  organized  at  all,  is 
organized  around  some  unit,  such  as  a  power  plant,  an  expensive 
piece  of  machinery,  or  a  rarely  endowed  manager.  Some  farming  en- 
terprises are  organized  around  a  mule,  a  tractor,  a  plot  of  land,  a  fam- 
ily as  a  working  unit,  or  a  manager.  In  every  case  the  size  of  the  en- 
terprise is  determined  by  the  capacity  of  the  unit  around  which  the 
business  is  organized.  Where  land  it  not  a  merchantable  commodity, 
the  acreage  of  the  farm  itself  is  not  easily  increased  or  decreased.  It 
becomes,  therefore,  the  unit  around  which  the  business  must  be  or- 
ganized, and  the  size  of  the  business  is  necessarily  determined  by  the 
capacity  of  the  farm.  Where  land  is  a  merchantable  commodity,  the 
acreage  can  be  increased  or  decreased  to  suit  the  capacity  of  the  man- 
ager. It  is  his  capacity,  therefore,  rather  than  the  predetermined 
acreage  of  the  farm  that  determines  the  size  of  the  business. 

Where  the  predetermined  acreage  of  the  farm  is  the  unit,  the 
question  is,  how  intensively  to  cultivate  that  acreage;  that  is,  how 
much  labor  and  capital  to  apply  to  its  cultivation.  The  answer  is 
obvious  to  every  student  of  economics:  As  many  units  of  labor  and 
capital  must  be  applied  as  will,  one  year  with  another,  enable  the  last 
units  applied  to  just  pay  for  themselves;  or  the  last  application  of 
labor  and  capital  on  the  farm  to  just  pay  its  cost  in  the  increase  of 
yield. 

Where  there  is  no  predetermined  acreage,  the  manager  must  re- 
gard his  own  capacity,  rather  than  the  size  of  the  farm,  as  the  limiting 
factor.  That  is,  he  must  increase  or  decrease  his  acreage  as  freely  as 
he  would  his  labor  force  or  his  supply  of  tools  and  equipment.  But 
he  must  remember  that  his  capacity  is  as  limited  as  is  that  of  his  land 
or  that  of  any  part  of  his  equipment.  If  he  tries  to  run  too  big  a  busi- 
ness, he  must  of  necessity  give  somewhat  less  attention  to  details.  He 
must  spread  himself  thinly,  as  it  were,  over  a  large  business.  He 
must,  however,  enlarge  his  business  until  the  last  unit  of  a  combined 
factor  "land-labor-capital"  just  pays  for  itself.  If  he  stops  short  of 
this,  so  that  an  additional  unit  of  "land-labor-capital"  would  more 


94  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

than  pay  for  itself,  he  will  be  losing  that  profit.  If  he  goes  too  far, 
so  that  this  last  unit  does  not  add  enough  to  the  total  product  of  the 
business  to  quite  pay  the  additional  cost, — in  short,  if  it  does  not  quite 
pay  for  itself, — he  loses  money  on  it  and  reduces  his  free  income. 

BALANCING  THE  DIFFERENT  FACTORS  OP  PRODUCTION 

As  to  the  balancing  of  the  different  factors  of  production  in  his 
business,  the  rule  is  that  the  last  unit  added  to  each  factor  must  add 
exactly  as  much  to  the  product  of  the  whole  as  the  last  unit  added  to 
each  of  the  other  factors.  This  would  be  a  perfectly  balanced  farm 
business.  If,  for  example,  a  farmer  has  so  much  land  and  so  little 
equipment  that  the  last  forty  acres  of  land  adds  less  to  the  total  crop 
than  would  have  been  added  if  the  price  of  that  land  had  been  spent 
on  tools  and  labor,  the  farm  is  not  well  balanced — the  farmer  is 
land  poor.  It  would  pay  him  to  sell  some  of  his  land  and  put  the 
money  into  labor,  equipment,  etc.,  if  he  cannot  otherwise  balance  his 
farm.  This  illustration  could  be  multiplied  or  repeated  with  respect 
to  each  and  every  item  in  the  farmer's  business  inventory.  "Nothing 
in  excess"  must  be  his  ideal;  but  that  ideal  is  not  realized  until  the 
last  unit  in  each  part  of  his  business  has  exactly  as  great  marginal  pro- 
ductivity as  the  last  unit  of  each  and  every  other  part. 

THE  COMMERCIAL  PROBLEMS  OF  THE  FARMER — EFFICIENCY 
IN  BARGAINING 

The  commercial  problems  of  the  farmer  are  all  summarized  in 
the  question,  how  to  increase  his  efficiency  in  bargaining  so  as  to  buy 
and  sell  to  better  advantage.  More  and  more  the  economic  world  is 
realizing  that  there  is  a  distinct  difference  between  efficiency  in  pro- 
duction and  efficiency  in  bargaining.  Efficiency  in  production  consists 
in  turning  out  the  largest  product  in  porportion  to  the  sum  of  human 
energy  expended  in  the  work  of  production.  Efficiency  in  bargaining 
consists  in  buying  a  given  quality  at  the  lowest  possible  price,  or  selling 
a  given  quality  at  the  highest  possible  price.  In  many  industries  the 
size  of  the  business  unit  is  determined  quite  as  much  by  the  question 
of  efficiency  in  bargaining  as  by  the  question  of  efficiency  in  production. 
Many  of  the  supposed  economies  of  the  trust  were  not  economies  in 
production  at  all,  but  mere  advantages  in  bargaining.  Later  ex- 
perience has  demonstrated  that  there  were  few,  if  any,  real  economies 
in  production  in  the  trust  form  of  organization.  This  is  not  saying, 
of  course,  that  there  were  not  many  economies  in  fairly  large-scale 


LARGER  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  95 

production,  but  we  have  learned  to  be  skeptical  of  any  alleged  econo- 
mies that  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  purely  mechanical  basis.  For  ex- 
ample, it  takes  a  large  power  plant  and  a  lot  of  powerful  machinery 
to  roll  even  one  steel  rail.  When  you  once  have  this  large  equipment, 
of  course  it  pays  better  to  keep  it  busy.  Here  you  have  a  definite  me- 
chanical reason  for  fairly  large-scale  production. 

From  the  standpoint  of  bargaining,  however,  the  large  concern 
has  many  advantages  over  the  small  concern.  It  can  afford  to  main- 
tain a  larger  selling  organization  with  agents  located  everywhere, 
which  agents  can  "get  there  first,"  before  the  scattered  agents  of  the 
smaller  concern  can  get  around.  Being  able  to  buy  its  raw  materials 
on  a  larger  scale,  it  may  succeed  in  getting  better  bargains.  It  may 
also  be  able  to  handle  its  labor  situation  more  effectively  and  make  use 
of  cheaper  grades  of  labor  than  the  smaller  concern.  In  various 
ways,  by  either  buying  or  selling  to  better  advantage  than  the  smaller 
concern,  it  may  beat  it  out. 

The  seller  is  a  weak  bargainer  when  the  buyer  has  many  other 
opportunities  to  buy.  The  buyer  is  weak  when  the  seller  has  many 
other  opportunities  to  sell.  Collective  bargaining  on  the  part  of  sellers 
reduces  the  number  of  other  opportunities  open  to  the  buyer;  when 
practised  by  buyers  it  reduces  the  number  of  other  opportunities  open 
to  sellers.  It  is  dangerous,  first,  because  it  is  a  game  that  both  sides 
can  play ;  second,  because  it  may  become  a  means  of  extortion  instead 
of  a  means  of  defense. 

WHEN  DOES  COLLECTIVE  BARGAINING  CEASE  TO  BE  A  MEANS  OF 
DEFENSE  AND  BECOME  A  MEANS  OF  EXTORTION? 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  questions  now  before  the 
world.  When  the  world  really  answers  it,  things  will  begin  to  be 
uncomfortable  for  those  who  are  caught  using  it  as  a  means  of  ex- 
tortion, whether  they  call  themselves  merchants,  manufacturers,  labor 
unions,  or  farmers.  The  world  will  tolerate  a  good  deal  of  collective 
bargaining  so  long  as  it  is  a  means  of  defense  on  the  part  of  those  who 
cannot  bargain  for  enough  to  give  them  a  decent  living.  It  will  not 
stand  much  more  than  that. 

Just  now  our  farmers  are  weak  in  bargaining  power.  They  are 
justly  inclined  to  turn  to  collective  bargaining  as  a  means  of  defense. 
I  warn  them,  however,  that  their  present  weakness  is  temporary. 
Europe  is  impoverished  and  not  able  to  buy  our  surplus  at  remunera- 
tive prices.  Our  farmers  are  therefore  forced  either  to  sell  it  to  them 
at  prices  which  they  can  afford  to  pay,  or  not  to  sell  at  all.  They  are 


96  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

wisely  choosing  to  sell  at  such  prices  as  they  can  get.  Our  farmers 
are  thus  feeding  Europe  at  a  very  low  price.  This  cheap  food  will  be 
the  chief  factor  in  the  rebuilding  of  Europe.  The  difficulty  of  selling 
to  them  at  a  remunerative  price  is  increased  by  the  fact  that  Europe  has 
no  money  with  which  to  buy  our  surplus  and  must  pay  in  goods.  Tariff 
legislation  hinders  her  paying  in  goods.  Thus  our  government  is  de- 
liberately reducing  the  power  of  European  countries  to  buy  our  sur- 
plus, and  thereby  forcing  our  farmers  to  take  still  lower  prices  for 
their  surplus  than  they  would  otherwise  have  to  take. 

When  Europe  again  resumes  normal  production  there  will  be  a 
pre-war  demand  for  American  farm  products.  The  American  farmer 
will  then  come  into  his  own  and  will  no  longer  need  collective  bar- 
gaining as  a  means  of  defense.  If  he  uses  it  at  all,  he  will  be  using  it 
as  our  trusts  formerly  did  and  as  some  of  our  labor  unions  are  be- 
ginning to  use  it,  as  a  means  of  extortion. 

Consider  this  in  connection  with  another  fact ;  namely,  that  our 
farmers  are  already  a  minority.  That  being  the  case,  they  cannot 
prevent  hostile  legislation.  When  the  majority  who  are  not  farmers 
discover  that  the  minority  who  are,  are  using  collective  bargaining  as 
a  means  of  extortion,  our  farmers  must  look  out  for  hostile  instead  of 
friendly  legislation. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  at  this  point  a  fundamental  contrast 
between  bargaining  power  and  voting  power.  In  the  case  of  any 
economic  class  the  more  numerous  it  is  the  greater  its  voting  power, 
but  the  lower  its  bargaining  power,  and  vice  versa,  the  fewer  its  num- 
bers the  greater  its  bargaining  power  and  the  less  its  voting  power. 
During  the  decades  of  the  over-rapid  settlement  of  our  western  lands, 
the  farming  population  was  numerous  relatively  to  the  rest  of  the 
population  and  had  great  voting  power,  but  its  bargaining  power  was 
low  and  all  agricultural  products  had  to  sell  at  a  low  price.  The 
tendency  at  the  present  time  is  for  our  farming  population  to  become 
relatively  less  numerous, — that  is,  to  increase  less  than  other  classes. 
This  is  materially  increasing  its  bargaining  power,  as  evidenced  by 
the  higher  prices  at  which  farm  products  sell ;  but  it  is  correspond- 
ingly reducing  its  voting  power,  and  it  will  never  again  be  able  to 
exercise  even  the  moderate  amount  of  control  over  the  policies  of 
the  Nation  that  it  has  exercised  in  the  past.  This  weakness,  however, 
if  it  be  a  weakness,  is  much  more  than  compensated  by  the  higher 
bargaining  power  that  is  coming  to  the  agricultural  classes. 

Collective  bargaining,  however,  may  have  two  very  distinct 
meanings.  So  long  as  it  is  confined  to  cooperation,  in  order  to  get 


LARGER  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  97 

the  advantages  of  buying  by  wholesale  or  of  selling  in  large  quantities 
so  as  to  be  able  to  advertise  and  attract  buyers,  there  is  not  and  never 
can  be  any  valid  objection  to  it.  It  is  only  when  it  reaches  the  stage 
where  it  is  able  to  keep  the  entire  supply  off  the  market  and  thus  "hold 
up"  the  buying  or  consuming  public  that  it  becomes  uneconomical  and 
dangerous.  As  suggested  above,  so  long  as  this  extreme  method  is 
used  by  the  very  poorest  members  of  society  who  are  obviously  not  able 
to  get  a  decent  income  otherwise,  the  world  is  very  tolerant;  but  the 
minute  it  begins  to  be  used  by  people  who  are  already  as  prosperous 
as,  or  more  prosperous  than,  the  average  of  those  of  whom  they  are 
taking  advantage,  the  latter  will  rebel  or  will  launch  a  counter  attack. 

EFFECT  ON  LAND  VALUES  OF  FLUCTUATIONS  IN  AGRICUL- 
TURAL PROSPERITY 

I  have  suggested  already  that  the  present  depression  of  agricul- 
ture is  abnormal,  and  that  there  are  better  times  ahead  for  all  our 
farmers.  It  does  not  take  a  very  long  memory  to  convince  one  that 
for  several  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  agriculture  wTas  on  the 
up-grade.  The  rise  in  prices  was  very  general,  but  the  rise  in  agri- 
cultural prices  was  a  little  more  rapid  than  the  rise  in  the  general 
price  level.  As  soon  as  this  present  aftermath  of  the  war  is  over, 
there  is  every  reason  to  think  that  the  pre-war  tendency  will  reestab- 
lish itself. 

These  extreme  fluctuations  in  agricultural  prosperity  furnish  an 
interesting  problem.  Contrary  to  a  very  general  impression  that  ag- 
riculture is  the  most  stable  of  all  industries,  there  is  one  important 
sense  in  which  it  is  the  least  stable  of  them  all.  Perhaps  it  would  be 
clearer  to  say  that  in  some  respects  agriculture  is  a  relatively  stable 
industry,  but  in  other  respects  it  is  one  of  the  most  unstable  of  all. 
The  instability  is  associated  with  the  price  of  farm  land  and  its  rela- 
tion to  the  price  of  farm  products.  This  relationship  can  be  ex- 
pressed generally  by  the  proposition  that  a  relatively  slight  change  in 
the  price  of  farm  products  is  normally  and  logically  followed  by  a 
vast  change  in  the  price  of  farm  land. 

This  may  be  illustrated  as  follows.  Let  us  suppose  that  for  a 
considerable  area  of  the  lands  of  the  corn  belt  it  costs,  one  year  with 
another,  fifty  cents  to  grow  a  bushel  of  corn,  figuring  in  every  element 
of  cost,  including  the  farmer's  wages  of  superintendence  and  interest 
on  his  equipment.  If  the  price  of  corn,  one  year  with  another,  is  ex- 
actly fifty  cents  a  bushel  and  is  not  expected  to  go  any  higher,  corn  land 
is  worth  exactly  nothing.  That  is  to  say,  the  average  corn  farmer 


98  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

would  be  as  well  off  if  he  worked  for  wages,  let  his  capital  for  in- 
terest, and  abandoned  his  land,  as  he  would  be  if  he  kept  his  land  and 
tried  to  grow  corn.  He  would  have  no  motive  for  holding  on  to  his 
land  and  no  one  else  would  have  a  motive  for  buying  his  land. 

Suppose,  however,  that  the  price  of  corn  should  rise  to  sixty 
cents  a  bushel  and  it  was  expected  that  it  would  remain  at  this  level, 
one  year  with  another.  There  is  now  ten  cents  a  bushel  surplus. 
Obviously,  no  man  would  abandon  his  land  under  these  conditions. 
He  has  a  motive  for  keeping  it;  and  there  would  be  plenty  who 
would  be  glad  to  buy  it  at  some  fair  price.  In  other  words,  no  man 
could  make  as  much  by  abandoning  his  land  and  letting  his  capital 
at  interest  as  he  could  by  keeping  his  land  and  growing  corn. 

How  much  advantage  would  his  land  be  to  him?  Well,  let  us 
suppose  that  he  can  grow  fifty  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  on  the  aver- 
age and  makes  ten  cents  on  each  bushel.  He  then  makes  five  dollars 
on  each  acre  of  land.  Five  dollars  capitalized  at  the  rate  of  five 
per  cent  would  be  one  hundred  dollars.  One  hundred  dollars  would 
be,  therefore,  the  logical  price  for  an  acre  of  that  land.  Now  a  rise 
from  fifty  cents  to  sixty  cents  a  bushel  is  not  so  very  violent,  but  with 
the  figures  which  I  have  assumed,  it  would  make  the  difference  be- 
tween no  price  and  one  hundred  dollars  an  acre  for  farm  land. 
Again,  assume  that  there  is  another  rise  of  ten  cents  a  bushel  in  the 
price  of  corn,  the  expenses  of  growing  the  crop  remaining  the  same. 
A  change  from  sixty  cents  to  seventy  cents  is  not  so  very  violent,  but 
this  would  exactly  double  the  logical  price  of  farm  land;  for  now, 
instead  of  making  ten  cents  on  each  bushel,  he  makes  twenty  cents, 
clear,  over  and  above  the  expenses  of  growing  the  crop.  Translated 
into  acres,  he  now  makes  ten  dollars  an  acre  instead  of  five  dollars. 
Capitalizing  this  ten  dollars  at  five  per  cent  makes  two  hundred 
dollars,  the  logical  price  of  an  acre  of  land,  instead  of  one  hundred 
dollars.  In  short,  an  increase  of  one-sixth  in  the  price  of  corn  pro- 
duces logically  a  doubling  of  the  price  of  farm  land.  A  similar  fall 
in  the  price  of  corn  would  produce  a  similarly  violent  fall  in  the 
price  of  farm  land. 

To  BUY  ON  CREDIT  A  HAZARDOUS  UNDERTAKING 

In  this  country,  where  the  tendency  is  for  farmers  to  own  their 
own  land,  they  are  very  likely  to  measure  their  own  prosperity  in 
terms  of  the  trend  of  land  prices.  It  is  inevitable  that  there  should 
be  very  wide  fluctuations  in  land  prices.  Of  course,  this  is  not  likely 
to  have  a  great  deal  of  influence  on  the  farmer  who  owns  his  land 


LARGER  ASPECTS  OF  FARMING  99 

free  from  debt  and  is  not  thinking  of  selling;  but  it  is  also  a  fact 
that  in  this  country  more  than  in  any  other,  land  is  a  merchantable 
commodity,  is  frequently  bought  and  sold,  and  when  bought,  is  fre- 
quently bought  on  credit.  To  buy  on  credit  an  object  which  is  sub- 
jected to  such  violent  fluctuations  in  value  is  a  rather  hazardous 
undertaking.  You  may  gain  very  largely,  and  then  again  you  may 
lose  very  heavily.  In  other  words,  farm  land  is  one  of  the  most 
uncertain  and  hazardous  of  all  investments. 

I  mention  this  for  the  reason  that  it  has  been  frequently  stated 
in  recent  years  that  farm  lands  are  the  safest  of  all  securities  as  a 
basis  for  credit.  That  is  a  proposition  which  may  sound  well  on 
a  political  platform,  but  it  is  not  true,  in  fact;  and  they  who  have 
taken  it  literally,  especially  in  the  recent  land  boom  in  the  corn  belt, 
have  learned  to  their  extreme  sorrow  that  it  is  a  dangerous  fallacy. 

One  of  my  colleagues,  in  a  recent  attempt  to  be  facetious,  has 
remarked  that  agricultural  economics  is  a  kind  of  mental  agriculture. 
If  so,  that  is  not  enough  to  condemn  it.  I  believe  that  there  are  a 
good  many  farmers  scattered  through  the  corn  belt  today  who  would 
be  materially  better  off  at  this  moment  if  they  had  practised  a  little 
more  of  this  kind  of  mental  agriculture, — the  kind  that  consists  in 
analyzing  the  basis  of  the  value  of  farm  land. 

"A  GOOD  LIVING  AND  TEN  PER  CENT" 

"A  good  living  and  ten  per  cent"  has  been  adopted  as  a  kind  of 
slogan  for  an  agricultural  campaign.  This  does  not  sound  unreason- 
able; that  is  to  say,  the  conditions  ought  to  be  such  as  to  make  it 
possible  for  any  first-rate  farmer  to  realize  that  or  more.  I  wish  to 
contend,  however,  that  for  the  inferior  farmer,  or  the  farmer  who  is 
materially  below  the  average,  this  is  a  goal  that  is  forever  unattain- 
able, if  the  value  of  the  land  is  considered  a  part  of  the  investment 
on  which  he  is  to  realize  ten  per  cent.  No  matter  how  good  a  farmer 
he  is,  if  he  happens  to  be  materially  below  the  average  of  those  who 
are  competing  with  him  for  land,  labor,  and  equipment,  he  never  will 
be  able  to  attain  this  goal  while  the  world  stands.  As  I  suggested 
earlier  in  this  paper,  his  more  efficient  competitors  will  bid  so  high 
for  land  as  to  make  it  impossible  for  this  inferior  farmer  ever  to 
realize  ten  per  cent  on  that  high  price. 

There  is,  however,  one  very  important  use  that  can  be  made  of 
this  slogan,  or  one  very  similar  to  it.  I  will  explain  this  use  by  first 
mentioning  what  happens  to  a  business  corporation  that  fails  to  pay 
all  the  expenses,  including  the  salaries  of  its  officers.  In  a  case  of  this 


100  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

kind,  everything  is  down  in  black  and  white;  and  the  corporation 
owes  its  managers  salaries  just  as  definitely  and  has  to  pay  these 
salaries  just  as  certainly  as  it  has  to  pay  for  its  raw  materials,  its 
fuel,  or  its  machinery.  When  it  fails  to  pay  all  expenses,  including 
the  salaries  of  all  its  office  force,  it  is  a  bankrupt  corporation  and 
must  be  liquidated.  Too  frequently  the  farmer  does  not  hold  his 
farm  to  the  same  strict  accountability  as  the  business  corporation  is 
held.  The  farm  has  to  pay  for  its  fertilizers  and  all  its  other  ma- 
terials with  deadly  certainty,  but,  in  present  practise,  it  is  not  required 
to  pay  the  farmer,  the  farm  boy,  or  the  farm  wife  definite  salaries  at 
all.  Too  many  of  them  go  on  working  without  any  salary,  or  with 
only  half  salary,  and  keep  the  farm  going  when  it  ought  to  be  bank- 
rupt and  its  affairs  wound  up.  If  such  a  campaign  of  education 
could  be  carried  through  as  would  persuade  every  farmer  to  run  his 
own  farm  so  as  to  pay  a  fair  salary  for  himself  and  for  all  his  family 
who  actually  work,  a  good  many  of  our  less  well  managed  farms 
would  be  bankrupt  and  liquidated  already.  This  would  be  largely, 
of  course,  a  matter  of  accounting.  If  the  accounts  were  so  kept  as  to 
show  exactly  how  much  the  farmer  was  getting  for  his  work  and 
that  of  his  family,  and  he  were  convinced  that  he  could  get  more  by 
working  for  somebody  else  than  by  working  for  himself,  and  if  he 
were  to  wind  up  his  business  as  promptly  as  the  corporation  managers 
close  the  corporation  that  fails  to  pay  salaries  along  with  other  charges, 
it  would  be  an  excellent  thing  for  the  farming  industry  over  the 
entire  country.  These  farmers  would  make  more  if  they  would  give 
up  farming  and  work  for  wages;  and  the  other  farmers  would  be 
relieved  of  the  competition  of  a  good  many  farms  that  are  not  now 
paying  operative  costs.  I  suggest,  therefore,  as  a  goal  to  be  striven 
for,  "Fair  wages  for  every  farm  worker  plus  five  per  cent  on  the 
investment."  That  is  a  goal  that  is  attainable,  and  when  it  is  attained 
it  will  mark  a  very  definite  improvement  in  the  economic  conditions 
of  the  farming  population. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  FARM 

DAVID  KINLEY,  President  of  the  University  of  Illinois 

O  ONE  can  turn  his  attention  to  the  subject  of  agriculture 
in  the  United  States  without  thinking  at  once  of  its  condi- 
tion at  the  present  time.  Therefore,  when  a  conference 
on  agriculture  is  called  it  is  inevitable  that  people  should 
expect  a  discussion  of  the  present  agricultural  depression. 
This,  however,  was  not  the  purpose  of  the  conference  called 
at  the  University.  The  purpose  was  rather  to  consider  the  direction 
or  trend  of  the  development  of  agriculture  in  Illinois  in  the  next  de- 
cade or  two,  with  special  consideration  of  the  part  that  the  University 
College  of  Agriculture  and  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  can 
or  may  play  in  that  development.  '  In  any  conference  on  the  general 
subject  of  agriculture  today,  three  problems  present  themselves:  the 
problem  of  the  present  depression ;  that  of  the  improvement  of  exist- 
ing agricultural  practises,  technically  and  economically ;  and  the  prob- 
lem of  the  future  agricultural  methods.  As  indicated  above,  a  fourth 
point  in  the  present  conference  is  the  relation  of  the  University  to 
that  progress. 

Altho  this  conference  was  not  called  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
the  present  depression,  I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  turn  aside  a  moment  to 
mention  it.  We  have  had  all  sorts  of  explanations  given  and  all  sorts 
of  remedies  proposed.  Most  of  the  explanations  and  remedies  have 
no  relation  to  the  subject.  Most  of  the  explanations  do  not  explain, 
and  most  of  the  proposed  remedies  would  make  the  situation  worse. 
In  fact,  no  one  can  give  an  adequate  explanation  of  the  situation  or  an 
adequate  remedy  for  its  improvement.  It  is  curious  that  in  an  age 
when  the  medical  profession  is  relying  less  and  less  on  drugs  for  the 
cure  of  disease  and  more  and  more  upon  the  healthy,  slow  processes 
of  nature,  the  social  doctors  are  facing  the  other  way  and  relying  more 
and  more  on  quack  remedies  through  legislation  than  on  the  operation 
of  natural  economic  and  social  forces. 

We  all  agree,  of  course,  that  the  present  situation  is  the  result 
of  the  war,  whatever  the  words  may  mean.  It  can  be  established,  I 
think,  that  not  only  did  the  processes  of  the  war  take  out  of  cultiva- 
tion vast  areas  of  land  formerly  used  to  produce  food,  but  it  also 
reduced  the  consuming  power,  that  is,  the  purchasing  ability,  of  the 
world.  Even  this  statement  needs  explanation,  but  this  is  not  the 
place  for  it.  Moreover,  the  demands  of  war  gave  a  direction  to  ag- 
ricultural production,  in  this  country  at  any  rate,  which  distorted 

101 


,102  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

somewhat  seriously  the  course  of  normal  agricultural  production.  In 
addition,  there  are  the  influences  due  to  the  disturbed  state  of  the  cur- 
rencies of  the  world ;  the  political  unrest,  which  is  both  a  cause  and  an 
effect ;  and  the  economic  disturbances  in  other  than  agricultural  lines. 
So  far  as  the  farmers  of  Illinois  and  the  United  States  are  concerned, 
they  were  led  to  produce  abnormally  in  some  directions,  relying  on  the 
high  prices  of  the  war,  artificially  stimulated  and  held  up  by  govern- 
ment action.  They  were  called  on,  for  example,  to  supply  wheat,  and 
they  furnished  it  from  areas  which  were  naturally  better  suited  to 
corn ;  for  of  course  the  dominating  factor  in  the  choice  of  a  crop  was 
the  price.  I  think  there  cannot  be  found  in  history  a  more  illuminat- 
ing illustration  of  the  evil  consequences  of  government  interference  in 
economic  life  than  has  been  furnished  by  the  government  activity  in 
industry  and  agriculture  during  the  recent  war.  The  foolish  cur- 
rency and  credit  policies  of  all  the  important  governments  during  the 
war,  and  the  ultra-foolish  policies  of  some  of  them  since  the  war  in 
the  great  inflation  of  currency,  have  made  the  situation  worse. 
Thousands  of  people  are  starving  in  some  parts  of  the  world  which  are 
accessible  by  ordinary  means  of  transportation,  because  the  currency 
and  credit  conditions  are  such  that  they  cannot  buy  the  things  needed 
to  keep  them  alive. 

Looking  at  the  situation  in  a  large  way,  the  first  thing  necessary 
to  the  restoration  of  normal  conditions  in  agriculture  and  industry  is 
the  cessation  of  currency  and  credit  inflation  by  Germany  and  other 
countries,  the  restoration  of  decent  conditions  in  Russia,  and  the  con- 
sequent reestablishment  of  international  trade.  The  debts  of  foreign 
countries  to  this  government  should  be  funded  at  a  reasonable  rate  of 
interest  for  a  long-time  period  to  assist  in  the  restoration  of  normal 
rates  of  exchange.  A  good  many  other  things  are  necessary,  but 
these  measures  would  go  a  long  way  toward  restoring  confidence  and 
setting  the  world  to  work. 

SOME  OUTSTANDING  FACTS  DETERMINING  FUTURE 
AGRICULTURAL  DEVELOPMENT 

With  reference  to  agriculture  in  Illinois  and  its  future  develop- 
ment, there  are  some  apparently  outstanding  facts  that  we  must  con- 
sider in  trying  to  determine  where  we  are  going. 

While  it  is  true  that,  taking  the  country  as  a  whole,  a  dozen 
years  ago  less  than  half  of  our  total  land  area  was  in  farms,  yet  less 
than  a  fourth  was  improved  and  less  than  a  sixth  was  tilled.  Never- 
theless, the  available  tillable  land  of  the  country  is  pretty  well  taken 
up,  and  further  great  expansion  in  agriculture  must  come  from  some 


THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  FARM  103 

other  method  than  by  simply  taking  up  more  land.  The  area  of  im- 
proved land  has,  of  course,  increased  pretty  rapidly  in  the  past  de- 
cade or  two,  but  it  has  not  increased  as  fast  as  our  population.  To  be 
sure,  improved  methods  of  agriculture  might  render  an  equal  rate  of 
increase  unnecessary.  Still  there  must  be  some  relation  between  the 
rate  of  increase  of  population  and  that  of  the  increase  of  improved 
farm  land  in  a  country  where  land  is  still  open  to  occupation.  When 
the  land  has  all  been  occupied,  then  the  relation  must  be  different  and 
a  larger  number  of  people  must  be  fed  from  each  acre.  Speaking  gen- 
erally, we  have  reached  that  condition  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Illinois.  In  other  words,  we  have  reached  the  point  of  what  is  called 
decreasing  returns  under  given  conditions  of  agricultural  practise.  In 
Illinois  in  1920,  the  improved  land  in  farms  was  approximately  three- 
fourths  of  a  million  acres  less  than  it  was  ten  years  before.  In  the 
meantime,  the  estimated  value  of  all  farm  property  had  risen  from 
3.9  billion  to  6.7  billion,  two  billions  of  this  increase  being  in  land, 
three  hundred  millions  in  buildings,  and  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions  in  implements  and  machinery.  In  other  words,  the  value  of 
the  land  increased  in  the  decade  70  per  cent,  that  of  the  buildings  73 
per  cent,  and  that  of  implements  and  machinery  202  per  cent.  These 
facts  also,  due  regard  being  had  to  other  conditions,  may  fairly  be 
interpreted  as  evidence  that  we  have  reached  the  point  of  decreasing 
returns  under  given  conditions  of  agricultural  practise. 

Again,  the  average  value  per  farm  has  increased  nearly  five  times 
in  the  past  thirty  years,  practically  all  of  the  increase  being  in  land 
and  buildings,  and  the  main  part  of  it  in  land. 

Another  significant  fact  for  Illinois  is  that,  generally  speaking, 
the  number  of  farms  of  every  size  has  decreased  excepting  those  be- 
tween one  hundred  and  five  hundred  acres.  The  tendency  seems  to 
be  that  the  usual  farm  shall  be  between  those  limits.  Another  fact  of 
some  importance,  altho  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  is  a  temporary 
phenomenon,  is  the  change  in  the  character  of  the  cereal  crops  in  the 
decade  just  closed.  In  the  ten  years  closing  in  1919,  there  was  a  de- 
crease of  21  per  cent  in  the  acreage  of  corn  harvested  and  an  increase 
of  nearly  88  per  cent  in  the  acreage  of  wheat  harvested.  This  change 
was  probably  due  to  the  demand  of  the  war,  exerting  itself  through 
the  higher  prices  offered  by  governments  for  wheat.  The  result,  of 
course,  was  the  devotion  of  land,  better  suited  to  corn,  to  the  produc- 
tion of  wheat.  In  other  words,  the  land  was  not  being  put  to  its  most 
socially  productive  use,  using  the  term  "productive"  with  reference  to 
total  actual  production. 


104  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

Again,  the  character  of  the  animal  industry  of  Illinois  has 
changed  in  considerable  degree  in  the  past  twenty  or  thirty  years, 
altho  it  is  true  that  there  were  more  cattle  reported  in  the  1920  census 
for  Illinois  than  in  the  1910  census. 

Again,  notwithstanding  a  large  increase  in  population,  largely  in 
the  cities,  there  has  been,  according  to  the  best  Census  estimate,  a  re- 
duction in  the  amount  of  milk  produced  in  the  state  and  in  the  amount 
of  butter  made,  altho  the  value  of  the  milk,  cream,  and  butterf  at  sold, 
and  of  the  butter  and  cheese  made,  is  estimated  by  the  census  to  have 
increased  128  per  cent. 

On  the  social  side,  the  Census  shows  a  decrease  in  the  number  of 
farms  operated  by  tenants;  but  the  decrease  is  evidently  all  in  the 
class  of  cash  tenants,  or  the  most  independent  class  of  tenants. 

Summing  these  facts  up,  they  seem  to  me  to  point  in  a  general 
way  to  certain  conclusions.  First,  as  already  suggested,  they  indicate 
that  in  Illinois,  as  elsewhere,  we  have  reached  the  point  where  in  our 
agriculture  we  must  expect  to  raise  larger  crops  per  unit,  or  to  get  more 
products  per  unit,  at  increasing  cost.  If,  in  our  attempt  to  raise  our 
crops  on  high-priced  soil  at  increasing  costs,  we  find  ourselves  unable 
to  compete  with  people  raising  similar  crops  on  cheaper  land  in  other 
parts  of  the  world,  we  shall  be  obliged  either  to  resort  to  a  system  of 
protection  for  agriculture,  or  we  shall  have  to  let  part  of  our  land  go 
out  of  use,  as  did  Old  England  and  later,  New  England.  We  shall 
have  on  our  hands  the  problem  of  abandoned  farms.  The  obvious 
conclusion  is  that  we  must  seek  that  kind  of  agricultural  activity  in 
which  we  are  most  efficient  under  our  Illinois  conditions.  We  must 
make  the  most  economical  use  possible  of  our  land  and  machinery. 

We  must  also  take  notice  of  the  fact  that  the  industrial  growth 
of  Illinois  is  likely  to  be  rapid  in  the  next  twenty-five  or  thirty  years. 
Manufactories  will  be  more  numerous.  That  growth  will  bring  to 
our  doors  a  larger  home  market.  Our  agriculture  may  perhaps  direct 
itself  to  supplying  products  peculiarly  demanded  by  such  a  market. 
Still,  again,  since  the  value  per  acre  and  per  farm  has  increased  and 
will  increase  more,  we  must  get  a  larger  output  per  farm  or  per  acre 
in  order  to  make  our  investment  pay. 

Generally  speaking,  our  policy  in  the  past  has  been  of  necessity 
large  farms  with  crops  of  a  single  character  or  cereal  crops  of  two 
kinds.  With  the  growth  of  a  home  market  of  industrial  centers, 
there  will  have  to  be  more  small  farms  producing  the  things  demanded 
for  consumption  in  such  centers.  In  other  words,  as  population  be- 
comes denser,  the  most  profitable  farm  may  perhaps  have  to  become 


THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  FARM  105 

smaller,  its  products  more  diverse,  its  cultivation  more  intense,  its 
value  per  unit  higher,  and  the  products  selected  for  growing  those 
which  are  in  greatest  demand,  and  in  the  market  where  the  net  profit 
is  highest. 

AGRICULTURAL  POLICY  OF  THE  IMMEDIATE  FUTURE 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  there  seem  to  be  certain  conditions 
which  will  modify  our  agriculural  policy  for  the  immediate  future. 

In  the  first  place,  we  are  bound  to  conserve  and,  if  possible,  to 
increase  the  fertility  of  our  land.  We  must  not  allow  it  to  run  down 
further ;  rather  we  must  restore  those  parts  of  it  that  have  run  down. 
How  to  do  this  is  a  problem  for  the  solution  of  which  the  farmers  of 
the  state  are  entitled  to  look  to  the  University  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station  for  help.  Much  has  been  done  in  the  study  of  the  ap- 
plication of  chemistry  to  agriculture.  Little  has  been  done  in  the 
study  of  the  improvement  of  plant  life,  and  in  the  study  of  plant  dis- 
ease and  the  remedies  therefor,  in  order  to  give  us  a  larger  and  more 
healthy  product  and  to  eliminate  the  waste  of  diseased  products.  This 
field  is  a  proper  subject  for  study  at  the  University. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  clear  that  our  cultivation  must  become 
more  intensive.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  we  can  raise  seventy-five  or  one 
hundred  bushels  per  acre  in  Illinois  of  this  crop  or  that  crop,  instead 
of  the  forty  or  fifty  that  we  have  been  raising.  In  the  past  a  great 
deal  of  foolish  talk  of  this  kind  has  been  indulged  in.  There  has 
never  been  any  doubt  in  the  mind  of  anyone  who  is  conversant  with 
the  facts  that  we  could  increase  the  output  per  acre  of  any  of  our  crops, 
but  at  a  cost.  The  farmer's  problem,  so  far  as  he  can  control  the 
amount  of  his  production,  is  to  get  a  product  which,  at  the  prices  that 
can  be  secured  for  it  when  put  upon  the  market,  will  yield  him  a  net 
profit.  Society's  problem  is  to  find  a  system  of  agriculture  which  will 
produce  enough  to  meet  the  demands  of  men  and  women  for  living, 
at  prices  which  they  can  reasonably  pay,  while  at  the  same  time  letting 
the  farmer  have  the  profit  necessary  to  induce  him  to  continue  his 
business  and  to  prosper  like  the  rest  of  the  community.  It  is  non- 
sense, therefore,  to  tell  the  farmer  that  he  should  increase  his  output 
per  acre  without  showing  him  that  the  increasing  cost  of  every  ad- 
ditional bushel  will  be  met  by  a  larger  market  and  an  increased  price 
per  bushel.  While,  therefore,  in  the  next  twenty-five  years  Illinois 
agriculture  is  bound  to  be  more  and  more  intensive,  one  of  the  ways 
in  which  it  may  become  so  is  by  the  discovery  of  methods  of  cultivation 
which  will  reduce  costs  of  production.  This,  again,  is  a  field  for 


106  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

study  and  investigation  by  the  University.  These  remarks  apply  to 
improvements  not  only  in  the  technical  processes  of  agriculture  but  in 
the  economic  processes  involved  in  farming.  We  must  find  improved 
business  methods  for  farming.  The  business  side  of  farming,  as  has 
been  said  here  repeatedly,  is  capable  of  great  improvement.  This  is  true 
not  only  of  methods  of  marketing,  which  is  a  very  popular  subject  of 
discussion  today,  altho  it  is  not  the  cure-all  for  agricultural  ills  that 
many  seem  to  think ;  but  it  is  also  true  of  other  phases  of  the  business. 

In  the  third  place,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  we  may  find  it 
profitable  to  diversify  our  agriculture  still  more  in  the  way  of  in- 
creasing those  products  which  are  in  immediate  demand  for  family 
consumption  in  cities  and  industrial  centers,  which  are  bound  to  be- 
come more  numerous  all  over  the  state.  It  may  be  that  in  doing  this 
the  average  farm  will  have  to  become  smaller  and  the  owner  will  have 
to  devote  himself  to  more  lines  of  farming  than  many  of  our  farmers 
are  accustomed  to  now.  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  time  the  farms  of 
some  of  the  states  to  the  east  of  us,  and  perhaps  in  Illinois  itself,  will 
become  more  nearly  like  those  of  certain  parts  of  the  Old  World  and 
of  the  East,  where  population  is  dense,  in  the  sense  that  each  farm,  so  to 
speak,  a  complex  of  a  large  group  of  agricultural  operations.  The 
farmer  raises  a  few  cattle  and  hogs,  various  kinds  of  vegetables  or 
garden  truck,  fruits,  a  certain  amount  of  milk  and  butter,  and  perhaps 
a  considerable  amount  of  one  or  two  of  the  grains.  Under  the  con- 
ditions in  which  he  lives,  and  his  closeness  to  a  large  population,  he  has 
a  surplus  in  each  one  of  his  products  that  he  can  sell  at  a  profit. 

In  the  next  place,  we  must  learn  to  make  a  better  use  of  our  un- 
tilled  land.  We  shall  undoubtedly  find  it  profitable,  if  not  necessary, 
very  soon  to  increase  the  number  of  our  trees.  The  best  way  to  do 
this  is  for  each  farm  to  have  its  woodlands.  Other  land  not  under 
cultivation  and  not  lying  fallow  will  undoubtedly  be  more  largely 
used  for  grazing  purposes,  even  tho  the  use  be  temporary  for  particular 
farmers. 

We  must  look  forward,  too,  it  seems  to  me,  to  an  increase  in  our 
horticultural  agriculture.  There  is  no  good  reason,  so  far  as  I  can 
see,  why  there  should  not  be  a  great  many  small  orchards  as  part  of 
the  farms  throughout  the  State,  as  well  as  a  few  large  orchards.  It 
seems  probable  that  such  orchards  can  be  made  profitable  to  the  farmer. 

Other  auxiliary  agricultural  enterprises,  such  as  bee  culture  and 
poultry  raising,  will  have  to  be  more  commonly  engaged  in. 

Still  again,  the  dairy  industry  of  the  state  needs  development  and 
better  organization.  The  demand  for  dairy  products  will  grow  as 


THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  FARM  107 

the  population  grows,  especially  in  the  neighborhood  of  cities  and  in- 
dustrial centers.  The  dairy  industry  should  become  larger  in  the  next 
decade  or  two,  both  as  an  independent  industry  and  as  a  part  of  ordi- 
nary farming.  In  this  line,  as  in  others,  the  University's  duty  as  it 
is  supplied  with  means  for  the  purpose  is  to  cooperate  with  the  prac- 
tical farmer  by  studying  conditions  and  trying  to  devise  methods  of 
expansion  and  improvement  and  to  make  scientific  discoveries  that 
will  promote  the  progress  of  the  industry. 

ECONOMIC,  SOCIAL,  AND  BUSINESS  IMPROVEMENT 

In  addition  to  the  group  of  activities  and  improvements  thus  far 
mentioned,  there  is  also  the  very  large  field  of  economic,  social,  and 
business  improvement  in  farming.  Farming  as  a  business  has  been 
sadly  neglected.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  popular  enthusiasm  at  pres- 
ent about  one  aspect  of  the  economics  of  farming;  namely,  that  of 
marketing,  and  some  on  the  general  subject  of  farm  organization  and 
management.  Farm  organization  may  be  regarded  from  the  point  of 
view  of  technical  agriculture  or  from  that  of  economics.  From  the 
former  point  of  view,  the  farm  should  be  so  organized  as  to  make 
possible  the  utilization  of  the  best  technical  methods  of  production. 
From  the  latter  point  of  view,  the  farm  should  be  organized, — that  is 
to  say,  the  capital  invested  in  the  farm  should  be  so  apportioned  be- 
tween different  farm  operations, — as  to  yield  the  largest  net  profits 
from  the  processes  to  which  it  is  assigned.  We  need  a  study  of  the 
apportionment  of  capital  to  diverse  farming  operations  on  farms  of 
standard  sizes.  This  would  be  a  study  of  agricultural  investment. 
To  this  the  University  should  give  its  attention  as  soon  as  it  can  find 
means.  We  need,  in  addition,  a  study  of  the  economics  of  farm  dis- 
tribution, involving  marketing;  warehousing  (cooperative  and  other)  ; 
transportation,  whether  by  highway  or  by  rail;  markets  considered 
with  reference  to  their  geographical  distribution  and  their  economic 
character;  and  a  number  of  similar  subjects.  These  are  all  proper 
subjects  for  study  at  the  University,  and  it  should  be  a  part  of  the 
future  policy  of  the  state  to  provide  means  for  the  encouragement  of 
these  studies. 

Again,  we  shall  need  in  our  Illinois  farming  better  and  more  fre- 
quent statistical  reports  showing  the  actual  conditions  in  the  various 
agricultural  activities  of  interest  to  our  people,  so  that  our  farmers  will 
be  able  more  intelligently  to  determine  what  products  to  raise  in  each 
season  and  how  most  advantageously  to  sell  them. 


108  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

We  need  to  make  a  more  profitable  use  of  what  are  at  present 
waste  products  on  the  farm.  On  this  subject,  as  on  that  of  raising 
larger  crops  per  acre,  there  has  been  much  nonsense  talked  and  written. 
Speaking  economically,  an  article  which  has  in  it  the  possibility  of  use- 
fulness is  not  wasted  when  it  is  not  used,  if  the  cost  of  using  it  would 
be  greater  than  the  value  obtained  from  it.  From  the  farmer's  point 
of  view  it  is  not  waste  to  use  corn,  or  even  wheat,  for  fuel  if  he  can 
get  his  heat  per  unit  at  less  cost  in  this  way  than  by  buying  coal  and 
there  is  at  the  time  no  more  profitable  use  open  to  him.  It  is  not 
waste  from  the  producer's  point  of  view  to  let  the  apples  rot  on  the 
trees  or  the  oats  remain  uncut,  if  it  would  cost  more  to  put  them  on  the 
market  than  the  value  that  would  be  received  from  them.  There  are 
technical  and  economic  problems  in  this  question  of  waste  that  are 
waiting  for  solution.  We  are  not  yet  making  profitable  use  of  our 
cornstalks  or  probably  of  some  other  products  that  are  commonly 
thought  of  as  waste. 

Agriculture  in  Illinois  in  the  next  twenty-five  years  needs,  as  in- 
deed all  other  businesses  and  industries  do,  an  improved  system  of 
taxation.  There  is  a  great  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  real  incidents  of 
our  taxes  as  they  are  at  present,  and  there  is  undoubtedly  a  good  deal 
of  inequity  in  our  present  system  of  taxation.  It  is  due  in  large 
measure  to  the  retention  of  the  old  general  property  tax  under  which 
it  is  possible,  and  indeed  necessary,  to  place  the  heaviest  burden  on 
property  that  can  be  seen  and  therefore  found. 

Our  next  quarter-century  of  agricultural  progress  calls  also  for 
a  simpler  and  less  expensive  system  of  land  transfer.  As  some  one  has 
remarked,  "I  can  buy  a  bond  or  a  thousand  bushels  of  wheat  in  ten 
seconds  by  the  clock ;  but  to  buy  a  small  tract  of  land  involves  an  un- 
reasonable amount  of  time,  expense,  uncertainty,  risk,  and  vexation." 

Still  again,  on  the  economic  side  there  is  doubtless  some  room 
for  improvement  in  the  banking  and  credit  facilities  open  to  the 
farmer.  As  everybody  knows,  the  farmer  requires  both  short-time 
credit  and  long-time  credit.  His  short-time  credit  is  in  general  char- 
acter similar  to  that  called  for  by  the  manufacturer.  It  depends  on  his 
personal  reputation,  his  evident  ability  as  a  business  man,  and  the  prob- 
able value  of  his  season's  output.  When  a  man  borrows  on  the  basis 
of  security  of  this  character,  he  must  expect  to  be  able  to  borrow  only 
a  part  of  the  total  valuation  of  that  security  in  the  mind  of  the  banker. 
Yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  part  which  the  farmer  is  able  to 
borrow  is  ordinarily  less  than  the  proportion  which  the  business  man 
in  town  is  able  to  get.  A  somewhat  parallel  criticism  could  be  made 
of  credit  facilities  open  to  the  farmer  for  long-time  loans. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  AND  THE  FARM  109 

On  the  social  side,  life  in  the  country,  must  be  made  more  livable. 
I  do  not  sympathize  with  those  who  think  that  the  farmer's  boy  and 
girl  are  more  susceptible  to  the  lure  of  the  great  white  ways  of  the 
cities  than  are  other  boys  and  girls.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  city  are  in  so  large  a  degree  as  is  commonly  thought  the 
cause  of  the  exodus  from  country  to  city.  Nevertheless,  it  is  true 
that  means  of  recreation  and  pleasure  are  less  abundant  and,  on  the 
whole,  less  refined  in  the  country  districts  than  they  should  be.  This 
is  a  field  for  educational  activity.  It  should  begin  with  the  local  ed- 
ucational units,  particularly  the  high  school,  each  local  community 
utilizing  its  resources  to  furnish  proper  entertainment  for  the  young. 
It  is  a  mistake  for  every  community  to  look  to  the  University  as  in 
some  states  is  the  practise,  for  its  entertainments,  lectures,  and  study 
classes.  The  local  teaching  staff  should  first  be  used  and  the  Univer- 
sity looked  to  for  help  only  in  those  lines  and  subject  with  which  it 
properly  has  to  do. 

It  has  been  my  purpose  in  these  somewhat  desultory  remarks  to 
state  what  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  conditions  and  the  problems  rather 
than  to  offer  solutions  of  them.  It  is  peculiarly  rash  for  the  layman 
to  try  to  give  a  description  of  activities  with  which  he  is  not  familiar 
through  being  a  participant.  Yet  the  onlooker,  who  has  a  general 
understanding  of  the  character  and  direction  of  activities  of  a  par- 
ticular economic  character,  may  sometimes  see  their  general  drift  more 
clearly  than  if  he  were  immediately  engaged  in  them.  It  is  for  that 
reason  and  with  that  feeling  that  I  have  ventured  on  this  unfamiliar 
ground.  A  man  would  be  a  fool  who  would  attempt  to  prophesy 
for  the  next  twenty  ,or  thirty  years  in  Illinois  agriculture.  Yet  I 
venture  to  run  the  risk  of  being  called  foolish  by  pointing  out  that 
in  a  general  way  we  are  headed  towards  a  more  intensive  agriculture, 
towards  a  standard  or  model  farm  having  one  leading  agricultural  ac- 
tivity and  numerous  auxiliary  agricultural  processes,  each  of  them 
yielding  its  own  profit  and  all  together  yielding  a  larger  joint  profit 
than  would  be  obtained  from  the  pursuit  of  a  single  agricultural  ac- 
tivity on  that  particular  farm.  We  shall  have  larger  crops  per  acre 
and,  in  time,  either  higher  prices  for  them  or  reduced  costs  of  pro- 
ducing them.  We  shall  put  our  dairying,  as  a  separate  industry,  on  a 
firmer  basis,  and  we  shall  make  it  a  part  of  the  work  of  every  farm. 
We  shall  reclaim  our  waste  lands  and  use  them  for  forests  and  graz- 
ing. We  shall  restore  our  cattle  industry  by  finding  some  method 
of  low  cost  feeding,  and  we  shall  improve  our  economic  organization 
and  make  social  conditions  more  attractive. 


110  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

In  all  these  things  there  is  an  opportunity  and  duty  for  the  Uni- 
versity to  assist  by  its  studies  and  discoveries.  The  time  has  gone  by 
when  the  farmer  looks  with  contempt  upon  the  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station.  The  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  will  have  to 
widen  its  activities  to  include  some  economic  and  social  aspects,  and 
it  will  probably  find  it  advantageous  to  change  the  direction  of  its 
studies  in  connection  with  fertility  so  as  to  add  to  them  investigations 
in  plant  life  that  will  enable  us  to  get  more  healthy  plant  products 
and  more  of  them  at  the  same  cost. 


THE  INTRODUCTION  OF  NEW  CROPS 

CHARLES  L.  MEHARRY,  Attica,  Indiana 


HE  story  is  told  of  two  lumber  jacks  engaged  in  the  perilous 
job  of  rafting  logs  down  a  swollen  and  turbulent  northern 
stream.  The  current  and  rocks  were  too  much  for  the 
raft,  and  it  broke  up.  Jim  was  plunged  into  the  torrent. 
After  a  mighty  struggle  he  managed  to  reach  the  surface 
with  belly  and  lungs  well  nigh  filled  with  ice-cold  muddy 
water.  His  voice  registered  excitement  and  despair:  "Bill,  hurry 
quick  or  I'm  a  goner!"  Jim  grasped  a  stray  log  as  it  floated  past, 
but  the  strong  swift  current  carried  his  legs  and  body  beneath  the 
log  and  toward  the  surface  of  the  water.  Moreover,  the  log  began 
to  roll.  At  great  risk  to  his  own  life,  Bill  reached  Jim's  log  and 
was  reaching  for  his  collar  when  Jim  caught  sight  of  his  own  feet  on 
the  other  side  of  the  log,  where  they  had  been  driven  up  to  the  sur- 
face by  the  sheer  force  of  the  current.  Again  Jim  spoke,  but  this 
time  his  voice  indicated  more  self-control,  and  into  his  eye  had  come 
a  gleam  of  courage  and  self  sacrifice.  "Look  there,  Bill !  I  think  I 
can  hold  on  a  bit  longer.  Try  and  save  the  poor  hick  on  the  other 
side  of  the  log.  He's  in  head  first!" 

Should  we  farmers  not  try  to  visualize  the  entire  world  in  its 
plight?  May  we  not  summon  all  our  nerve  and  courage,  and  if 
necessary  a  certain  spirit  of  sacrifice;  for  is  not  human  civilization 
head  first  in  the  same  muddy  torrent  of  economic  maladjustment 
through  which  we  are  struggling ;  and  if  she  perish  what  is  the  use 
of  living? 

"Let  us  then  be  up  and  doing, 
With  a  heart  for  any  fate; 
Still  achieving,  still  pursuing, 
Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait." 

There  is  much  talk  of  late  about  overproduction  of  our  im- 
portant cereals  and  agitation  for  the  introduction  of  something  new 
to  take  their  place.  But  the  introduction  of  new  crops  needs  more 
justification  than  that  usually  advanced ;  namely,  that  oats  and  corn 
are  no  longer  profitable.  It  may  be  proved  that  overproduction  is 
not  troubling  us  so  much  as  underconsumption,  and  he  who  heed- 
lessly curtails  his  production  may  awake  some  day  to  find  that  our 
statesmen  and  economists  have  succeeded  in  restoring  the  international 
political  and  economic  balance,  and  that  a  hungry  world  is  again 

111 


112  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

ready  for  our  bread.  Such  a  man  may  find  cause  for  meditation. 
Dean  Davenport  said  recently  that  "Agriculture  has  national  and 
international  relationships,  but  they  must  be  handled  in  the  interests 
of  public  welfare,  and  not  of  selfish  class  interest."  That  is  sound 
and  fundamental  logic.  When  we  reflect  that  a  large  part  of  the 
world  is  starving  and  freezing,  the  talk  of  limiting  production  sounds 
like  false  economy. 

Likewise,  the  new  crop  which  does  not  find  justification  in  one 
or  more  of  about  three  words  is  not  likely  to  prove  profitable  to  its 
grower.  Those  three  words  are :  Economy,  Feed,  Fertility. 

If  by  introducing  a  new  crop  we  may  effect  a  saving,  directly  or 
indirectly,  of  cash  outlay  or  labor,  providing  there  is  need  for  the 
product,  there  is  justification.  If  in  addition  to  economy  the  new 
crop  furnishes  not  less  but  more  food  and  raiment  to  society,  at  less 
cost,  and  at  the  same  time  increases  the  fertility  and  productivity  of 
our  soils,  so  that  future  generations  may  be  fed  and  clothed, — then 
indeed  there  is  justification.  We  need  look  in  but  one  group  of  plants 
for  such  crops — the  legumes. 

NEW  CROPS  AMONG  THE  LEGUMES 

Among  legumes  we  find  three;  a  perennial,  a  biennial,  and  an 
annual,  all  of  which  are  yet  new  to  most  Illinois  farmers.  The  first 
is  alfalfa,  a  great  hay  crop,  which,  however,  lends  itself  but  poorly 
to  most  rotation  schemes  and  which,  because  of  its  conflicting  harvest 
season  and  heavy  yields,  does  not  lend  itself  well  in  large  acreages 
to  the  economical  distribution  of  labor  in  the  corn  belt.  In  spite 
of  these  drawbacks  and  the  plant's  exacting  requirements,  alfalfa  is 
too  good  and  beautiful  a  thing  to  be  ignored.  Most  of  us  could  grow 
it  in  many  of  the  irregular  small  lots  and  patches  about  the  premises, 
which  are  too  often  waste  places  and  eyesores.  Many  can  use  much 
more,  but  let  us  all  use  at  least  this  much. 

The  second  plant  is  the  biennial  sweet  clover,  a  wonderful  pas- 
ture plant  and  soil  enricher.  Not  quite  so  exacting  as  alfalfa,  it 
works  better  into  rotations.  Its  carrying  capacity  is  so  great  that 
truly  it  may  be  said  that  two  animals  may  graze  where  but  one  ate 
before.  The  seed  is  cheap,  and  there  is  but  one  exacting  require- 
ment— limestone.  Whether  pastured  by  live  stock  or  fed  to  the 
succeeding  cereal  crop,  this  plant  is  sure  to  enrich  the  soil,  society, 
and  the  farmer. 

The  third  plant,  the  annual  soybean,  is  destined  to  become  a 
great  grain  crop  as  well  as  a  wonderful  forage  plant.  Just  at  present 


NEW  CROPS  113 

it  is  as  a  forage  plant  that  it  finds  greatest  usefulness  in  Illinois. 
Practically  every  Illinois  farmer  should  raise  at  least  a  few  soybeans, 
for  all  they  ask  is  a  good  seed  bed  and  inoculation.  Nearly  every- 
body can  find  some  space  for  a  plant  which  will  make  a  hay  equal 
to  alfalfa,  or  a  grain  as  good  or  better  than  cotton-seed  or  oil  meal ; 
which  will  considerably  increase  the  amount  of  silage  he  can  grow 
per  acre,  or  make  a  wonderful  combination  with  corn  to  pasture  off 
with  live  stock;  which  will  tremendously  reinforce  his  cornstalk 
pasture ;  or  which,  grown  alone  and  plowed  under,  will  add  as  much 
nitrogen  to  the  soil  as  will  clover.  Finally,  when  a  commercial  de- 
mand becomes  established  for  the  seed,  on  account  of  its  exceptionally 
high  oil  content,  there  will  come  to  be  a  regularly  established  market 
for  seed. 

We  need  much  new  information ;  and  we  need  to  have  it,  as  well 
as  what  we  already  know,  much  more  widely  disseminated  before  these 
three  little-used  legumes  will  really  find  their  places  in  our  agri- 
culture. It  has  been  but  a  few  years  since  no  less  valued  and  influ- 
ential a  friend  and  adviser  than  Mr.  Frank  Mann,  when  asked  to 
criticize  our  Champaign  county  farm  and  our  practises  said  among 
other  things  that  he  believed  we  had  too  large  a  proportion  of  our 
land  in  legumes  to  be  practical  and  economical.  He  said  that  that  was 
a  criticism  he  hesitated  to  make,  but  that  it  was  his  honest  conviction. 
The  criticism  had  our  earnest  consideration,  but  we  have  never 
obtained  the  consent  of  our  minds  to  change  our  rotation,  and  we  still 
doubt  if  it  would  be  profitable  to  do  so.  Our  rotation  being  corn, 
soybeans,  wheat,  and  clovers,  half  the  cultivated  area  is  given  over  to 
the  exclusive  occupancy  of  legumes  each  year,  and  even  wheat  and 
corn  have  to  share  their  homes  with  clovers  and  soybeans.  Alfalfa 
we  use,  too,  but  not  in  the  rotation. 

THE  PLACE  OF  ALFALFA 

Alfalfa  being  a  perennial,  we  have  found  needs  more  than  two 
seasons  to  attain  perfection.  This  fact,  together  with  the  exacting 
requirements  of  the  plant,  and  the  further  fact  that  the  average  sized 
corn-belt  field  in  alfalfa  would  be  like  the  tail  that  once  wagged  a 
dog,  has  given  us  pause  whenever  we  have  considered  putting  alfalfa 
into  our  rotation.  The  fact,  too,  that  its  harvest  season  conflicts  with 
cultivation  of  the  corn  crop  and  sometimes  with  wheat  harvest,  makes 
it  difficult  to  distribute  labor  economically,  when  too  much  of  it  is 
undertaken.  But  alfalfa  is  much  too  useful  and  beautiful  a  crop  to 
be  ignored. 


114  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

On  nearly  every  farm  there  are  a  few  small  lots  near  the  barn 
which  seem  essential  but  which  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time  are 
not  in  use.  Because  of  their  small  size  and  often  their  odd  shape  these 
small  areas  are  difficult  and  expensive  to  till.  Now,  we  find  that 
alfalfa  fits  into  these  odd  areas  splendidly.  The  overhead  of  seed-bed 
preparation  is  distributed  over  several  years;  we  have  our  hay  close 
to  its  storage  places;  we  cannot  easily  overlook  either  the  needs  of 
the  crop  or  its  beauty.  Nothing  can  be  placed  between  the  farm 
yard  and  the  public  highway  that  will  more  enhance  the  view,  both 
from  within  and  from  without.  Incidentally,  no  inexpensive  change 
will  so  quickly  raise  the  selling  value  of  a  farm  as  to  frame  the 
dwelling  in  alfalfa.  I  do  not  mean  the  yard,  of  course,  but  the  area 
surrounding  the  yard. 

Many  of  the  important  problems  of  alfalfa  culture  are  farm 
management  problems.  We  believe  that  alfalfa  is  primarily  a  hay 
crop.  It  is  too  difficult  and  expensive  to  establish  to  use  for  pas- 
turing to  any  great  extent,  though  for  some  forms  of  live  stock  it 
does  make  excellent  pasture.  But  for  hay  it  would  be  par  excellence, 
the  best  crop,  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  its  season  conflicts  with 
certain  other  peak  labor  loads.  How  to  avoid  or  overcome  these 
conflicts  is,  we  believe,  the  most  needed  detail  yet  to  be  worked  out. 
It  may  be  that,  as  Mr.  J.  W.  Morgan  intimated  this  week,  the  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty  may  be  found  by  working  with  the  corn  crop 
as  well  as  with  the  alfalfa.  It  may  be  that  we  are  spending  an 
unnecessary  amount  of  time  in  the  cultivation  of  corn.  Have  we 
been  too  inclined  in  most  investigational  work  to  see  only  the  imme- 
diate crop,  animal,  or  enterprise  concerned,  without  enough  con- 
sideration being  given  to  the  thing's  relationship  to  the  entire  collective 
business  of  agriculture?  If  so,  it  would  seem  that  cordial  cooperation 
of  those  who  concern  themselves  largely  with  the  new  study  of  farm 
management  is  greatly  to  be  desired.  Indeed,  it  is  only  when  there 
is  the  most  cordial,  interested  cooperation  of  all  the  various  depart- 
ments of  our  College  and  Experiment  Station  that  they  really  func- 
tion normally  and  do  the  greatest  good.  Not  only  this,  but  coopera- 
tion and  a  spirit  of  helpfulness  between  the  colleges  and  stations  of 
our  various  corn-belt  states,  and  between  the  experimentalist  and  the 
farmer  himself,  are  also  essential  for  the  most  rapid  progress. 

SWEET  CLOVER  FOR  PASTURE  AND  FERTILITY 

The  biennial  sweet  clover  lends  itself  better  to  the  rotation  and 
makes  a  more  satisfactory  pasture  plant.  Indeed,  it  is  as  a  pasture 
plant  and  soil  enricher  that  sweet  clover  is  most  useful.  It  makes 


NEW  CROPS  115 

good  hay,  altho  alfalfa  and  soybeans  are  both  better  for  that  pur- 
pose. I  was  exceedingly  glad  to  see  the  Agronomy  and  Animal  Hus- 
bandry Departments  cooperating  on  the  South  Farm  last  fall  in  the 
investigation  of  this  pasture  plant.  Many  of  us  are  convinced  of  the 
great  value  of  this  crop,  while  many  others  still  dispute  it  or  are 
frankly  skeptical.  Much  more  exact  experimental  evidence  is  needed 
before  sweet  clover  may  occupy  its  rightful  heritage. 

NEED  FOR  INVESTIGATION  OF  CLOVER  PROBLEMS 

We  need  to  know  a  great  deal  more  about  the  factors  governing 
the  inoculation  of  all  our  legumes,  particularly  sweet  clover  and  soy- 
beans. Do  such  things  as  the  calcium  and  phosphorus  requirements 
of  these  plants  affect  the  multiplication  and  activity  of  nitrogen- 
gathering  bacteria;  and  does  deficiency  or  abundance  of  rainfall  do 
the  same?  Then  how,  why,  and  to  what  extent,  as  measured  by  the 
productivity  of  the  land?  Do  these  same  factors  affect  the  physio- 
logical functions  of  the  plants  and  their  composition?  If  they  do, 
how  do  these  differences  affect  the  functions  and  growth  of  young 
animals  that  feed  upon  them? 

We  need  to  know  whether  very  early  pasturing  of  sweet  clover 
is  beneficial  or  detrimental  to  the  plant.  Is  it  wise  to  pasture  it 
closely?  If  not,  is  it  beneficial  to  clip  it  when  it  reaches  a  certain 
stage  ?  If  so,  what  is  the  best  stage,  and  how  many  clippings  are  bene- 
ficial and  economical?  Does  clipping  improve  palatability ?  Does  it 
increase  carrying  capacity? 

Shall  we  try  to  grow  a  clear  stand  of  sweet  clover,  or  mix  other 
clovers  or  grasses  with  it;  and  why?  What  effect  do  the  different 
plants  in  a  pasture  mixture  have  upon  soil  fertility?  Is  the  amount 
of  forage  increased  and  its  efficiency  in  meat  making  improved  by  mix- 
ing pasture  clovers  and  grasses?  If  so,  to  what  extent?  And  why, 
and  how? 

To  what  extent  will  the  answers  to  all  such  questions  affect  our 
farm  practises  ?  We  shall  need  the  help  of  the  economist  to  reach  our 
decision. 

Soybeans,  reaching  maturity  in  a  single  season,  are  much  more 
adaptable  than  a  perennial  or  biennial.  Moreover  the  requirements 
for  this  crop  are  not  nearly  so  exacting  as  those  for  sweet  clover  and 
alfalfa.  The  crop  is  more  tolerant  of  an  acid  soil,  for  one  thing. 
But  just  what  effect  will  liberal  applications  of  limestone,  so  benefi- 


116  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

cial  and  essential  to  sweet  clover,  have  upon  the  growth,  inoculation, 
and  composition  of  soybeans?  If  it  affects  their  composition,  does  it 
make  them  a  better  feed  or  poorer?  Does  it  affect  the  oil  content? 
The  same  questions  might  be  asked  concerning  phosphorus. 

THE  INCREASING  INTEREST  IN  SOYBEANS 

Soybeans,  being  planted  in  the  late  spring,  have  neither  the 
vicissitudes  of  winter  nor  the  competition  of  another  crop  to  contend 
with.  Interest  in  this  crop  has  developed  marvelously  in  the  past  few 
years,  and  the  use  of  it  has  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds.  This  has 
been  but  natural,  as  seed  prices  have  made  soy  culture  very  remunera- 
tive. The  cost  of  production  has  been  about  the  same  as  for  corn 
on  our  farms  (in  many  instances  less),  and  the  gross  returns  generally 
greater.  In  the  corn  belt  there  has  never  been  a  commercial  market 
for  soybean  grain  other  than  for  seed  purposes.  The  grower  has  had 
to  find  his  own  market,  and  grade,  sack,  and  ship  the  crop  in  small  par- 
cels, often  to  the  corners  of  the  land!  This  is  a  problem  most 
farmers  do  not  care  to  solve,  tho  we  have  not  found  it  arduous, 
considering  the  compensation.  However,  several  corporations  are  now 
promising  an  outlet  for  next  year's  crop,  for  oil  and  feed  manufacture  ; 
and  unless  production  should  overtake  this  still  rather  modest  source 
of  consumption,  soybean  growing  should  prove  quite  remunerative, 
altho  promising  no  such  returns  as  we  have  been  in  the  habit  of  ex- 
pecting. Ultimately,  I  confidently  expect  soybeans  to  displace  oats  in 
our  Illinois  rotations  to  a  great  extent ;  but  it  would  be  a  tremendous 
mistake  to  try  to  accomplish  this  in  a  single  season,  or  even  in  three 
or  four.  A  campaign  of  education  is  needed  to  exploit  the  uses  of  soy- 
bean oil  and  cake  so  that  the  industries  and  the  feeder  may  appreciate 
their  value  and  gradually  increase  the  use  of  them.  Our  Household 
Science  Department  might  do  both  the  producer  and  consumer  a  great 
service  by  teaching  the  people  the  great  nutritive  and  dietary  value  of 
soybeans  as  human  food.  Unless  such  educational  work  is  pushed,  the 
time  may  not  be  far  distant  when  the  sale  of  soybean  seed  will  not 
be  profitable  on  account  of  overproduction. 

Should  this  occur,  however,  it  should  not  deter  any  farmer  from 
growing  what  soys  he  can  consume  on  his  own  farm;  and,  by  the 
way,  practically  every  farmer  ought  to  start  with  soybeans  on  that 
basis.  We  believe  the  College  and  Station  should  for  the  immediate 
present  lay  most  stress  upon  the  use  of  soybeans  as  a  forage,  while  at 
the  same  time  investigating  the  uses  to  which  oil  and  cake  may  be  put. 


NEW  CROPS  117 

SOME  THINGS  WE  NEED  TO  KNOW  ABOUT  SOYBEANS 

It  seems  to  us  that  from  now  on  less  attention  should  be  paid  to 
variety  tests,  and  more  to  standardization,  nomenclature,  selection, 
and  certification.  Both  producer  and  manufacturer  need  to  know 
how  oil  content  varies  with  variety,  and  whether  some  varieties  give 
up  their  oil  more  easily  than  others.  They  wish  to  know  what 
correlation  there  may  be  between  color  of  seed  coat  and  the  quantity 
and  quality  of  oil,  and  the  relative  value  of  cake  or  meal  from  different 
colored  seeds.  Is  there  a  difference  in  quality  of  cake  produced  by 
the  different  methods  of  oil  extraction?  We  should  know  to  what 
extent  and  in  what  manner,  climatic  and  soil  conditions  influence  the 
composition  of  the  plant,  especially  the  seed. 

This  Station  has  shown  that  soybeans  planted  with  corn  may 
reduce  the  corn  yield.  We  should  like  to  know  how  varying  rates 
of  planting  affect  the  corn  yield.  Is  there  any  symbiotic  relationship 
between  corn  and  soys  in  the  same  hill  ?  Certain  other  stations  have 
shown  that  the  two  plants  growing  together  may  produce  a  greater 
weight  of  silage  than  either  separately.  What  is  the  increase  worth  ? 
If  we  do  not  gain  as  many  pounds  of  soybeans  in  corn  as  we  lose  in 
corn,  are  the  soybeans  which  are  produced  worth  more,  as  a  supple- 
ment to  the  remaining  corn,  than  the  lost  corn  would  have  been  ?  Is 
a  field  of  corn  and  soys  which  is  harvested  by  being  pastured  with 
live  stock  worth  more  than  corn  grown  alone  on  the  same  field  and 
harvested  by  man?  We  should  have  this  data  for  all  the  meat  ani- 
mals. What  will  be  the  cumulative  effect  on  soil  productiveness  of 
long  continued  practise  of  pasturing  off  crops?  May  we  not  have 
cordial  cooperation  between  the  Agronomy  and  Animal  Husbandry 
Departments  in  solving  such  problems  as  these? 

Considerable  importance  may  be  attached  to  certain  laboratory 
studies  by  Dr.  Hottes,  of  the  germination  of  soybean  seed,  and  a 
continuation  of  these  studies  is  greatly  to  be  desired,  as  they  may 
reveal  why  some  varieties  have  given  uniformly  better  stands  than 
others.  They  may  settle,  too,  the  much  discussed  question  of  what 
effect  color  of  seed  has  on  germination  and  longevity  of  seed.  They 
may  teach  us  the  best  methods  of  seed  storage  and  care.  We  hope 
the  pathologists  will  undertake  to  solve  the  cause  and  prevention  of 
the  bacterial  blight  of  soys  that  we  have  observed  during  the  past  few 
years,  and  tell  us  why  some  of  our  best  varieties  have  been  the  most 
affected. 

We  believe  that  experiments  on  the  rate  and  manner  of  seeding 
should  be  continued  and  developed.  We  feel  that  managerial  economy 


118  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

points  strongly  toward  close  seeding  on  well-prepared  land,  to  be 
followed  by  rapid  over-cultivation  without  too  much  regard  for  the 
individual  plant.  We  feel  that  higher  hay  yields  are  to  be  expected, 
and  more  nitrogen  fixed,  where  the  land  is  most  fully  occupied. 

Harvesting  questions  should  also  receive  attention.  Economy  of 
material  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  economy  of  labor.  The  latter 
becomes  relatively  more  important  as  the  price  of  seed  comes  down 
without  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the  cost  of  labor.  We  should 
know  whether  more  than  one  soy  hay  crop  may  be  grown  on  the  same 
land  in  a  single  season.  Some  evidence  points  to  that  possibility. 
May  soys  be  cut  before  blooming  and  survive  the  cutting?  What 
yields  of  hay  would  they  make  at  that  stage?  If  they  will  not  sur- 
vive, may  a  second  seeding  be  made  which  will  yield  a  hay  crop 
before  frost? 

What  yield  of  ensilage  might  we  get  from  a  mixed  solid  seeding 
of  sweet  corn  or  pop  corn  with  an  early  variety  of  soys?  It  might 
bring  silo  filling  at  a  more  convenient  time  on  farms  where  soybean 
harvest  and  wheat  seeding  sometimes  interfere  with  silo  filling.  What 
quality  of  ensilage  would  such  a  combination  in  varying  proportions 
make? 

How  is  the  composition,  palatability,  digestibility,  and  yield  of 
soy  hay  in  tons  and  in  pounds  of  meat  per  acre  affected  by  the  stage 
of  maturity  at  cutting  ?  What  is  the  relative  value  of  soybean  straw 
or  mailings  compared  to  oat  straw  ?  Does  it  pay  to  'hull  soybeans  and 
feed  grain  and  straw  separately,  or  will  the  hull  tend  to  overcome 
the  ill  effects  sometimes  observed  when  feeding  hulled  beans  ?  Will 
extraction  of  the  oil  overcome  these  ill  effects?  May  they  be  over- 
come by  any  kind  of  supplemental  feeds?  Colorado  lamb  feeders 
find  it  practicable  to  harvest  field  peas  directly  from  the  field  with 
lambs.  Can  we  do  it  with  soys? 

FERTILITY  AND  SOIL  PHYSICS  PROBLEMS  AS  RELATED 
TO  THE  LEGUMES 

Fertility  and  soil  physics  problems  related  to  all  these  legumes 
need  further  study.  The  root  systems  of  perennial  and  biennial 
plants,  and  the  functions  they  perform,  differ  so  much  from  that  of 
the  annual  soybean  that  comparison  is  difficult.  We  should  know  the 
comparative  manurial  value,  in  whole  or  in  part,  or  indirectly,  after 
being  pastured  or  fed  to  live  stock.  We  believe  the  possibilities  of 
both  sweet  clover  and  soys  surpass  red  clover  in  some  respects.  Purdue 
records  show  that  soys  seeded  after  a  wheat  crop  was  taken  off,  grew 


NEW  CROPS  119 

over  13,000  pounds  of  material  (including  roots)  containing  92.7 
pounds  of  nitrogen.  At  the  same  station  wheat  after  soys  has  yielded 
5.5  bushels  more  per  acre  than  wheat  after  corn.  Should  we  not 
know  what  the  cumulative  effects  of  these  legumes  is  to  be  on 
fertility  ? 

Until  we  have  answers  to  such  questions  as  we  have  asked  and 
many  others  equally  important,  Illinois  agriculture  will  probably 
proceed  rather  cautiously  in  introducing  alfalfa,  sweet  clover,  and 
soybeans  into  its  scheme  of  management,  and  justly  so.  Yet  how 
badly  we  need  legumes  and  how  much  economy  to  agriculture  and 
to  the  nation  might  result  from  their  introduction ! 

THE  SOLUTION  OF  THESE  PROBLEMS  BY  THE  EXPERIMENT 

STATION 

In  the  introduction  of  these  new  crops  into  Illinois  agriculture, 
our  Experiment  Station  must  be  largely  influential.  Individually,  the 
farmer  cannot  afford  to  do  much  experimenting,  particularly  at  the 
present  time.  But  a  great  deal  may  be  done  collectively,  and  there 
has  hardly  been  a  time  when  we  needed  to  have  so  much  experimenting 
done  for  us.  In  so  far  as  our  inquiries  are  in  the  interest  of  public 
welfare  we  have  a  right  to  ask  the  consuming  public  to  help  us  solve 
our  problems  by  helping  to  support  our  College  and  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. It  is  the  duty  of  the  public  to  help  to  provide  research  workers 
who  may  in  any  way  help  to  reduce  the  cost  of  living.  This  the 
Experiment  Station  may  do  by  investigating  problems  relating  to  the 
growing  and  the  use  of  such  new  crops  as  we  have  mentioned.  It  is 
only  after  disinterested  scientific  investigation  by  trained  workers  that 
the  farmer  can  afford  to  venture  far  into  untried  enterprises. 

Let  us  all  then,  whether  we  be  producers,  consumers,  experi- 
mentalists, or  economists,  interest  and  concern  ourselves  that  such 
new  or  little  used  crops  as  alfalfa,  sweet  clover,  and  soybeans  be 
thoroly  investigated,  and  see  to  it  that  the  knowledge  gained 
be  disseminated  to  farmers;  to  the  end  that  farm  production  be 
economically  increased,  thereby  adding  to  the  farmer's  profit  and  at 
the  same  time  lightening  the  consumer's  burden  of  cost.  Let  us 
not  forget,  in  contemplating  the  benefit  to  us  individually,  the  thou- 
sands of  hungry  mouths  and  cold  bodies  in  foreign  fields.  Above  all, 
let  us  remember  the  succeeding  generations  of  Americans  and  our 
responsibility  for  their  welfare.  Consideration  for  our  children  and 
their  children's  children  should  scarcely  be  second  to  the  instinct  for 
self  preservation. 


FARM  FORESTRY  IN  ILLINOIS 

A.  N.  ABBOTT,  Morrison 

(Lantern  slides  were  used  during  the  address,  showing  sandy  and  eroded 
lands,  the  effects  of  tree  planting  on  sandy  land,  and  woods  where  forest  con- 
ditions were  maintained.} 

T  IS  estimated  that  timber  in  the  United  States  is  being  con- 
sumed four  times  as  fast  as  it  is  being  produced.  The 
rapidly  increasing  prices  of  lumber  products  during  the 
last  two  decades  foretell  the  great  timber  scarcity  which  is 
now  upon  us.  Our  great  white  pine  forests  were  exploited 
with  the  abandon  of  a  drunken  sailor.  A  heritage  which 
properly  managed  would  have  contributed  to  the  use  of  the  people 
forever  was  destroyed  in  twenty  years. 

It  is  quite  time  that  the  Nation,  the  states,  and  individuals  adopt 
a  timber  conservation  policy.  Much  land  is  now  cultivated,  or  has 
been  cultivated,  which  is  of  small  tillage  value  and  is  suitable  for 
forestry.  The  most  authentic  sources  of  information  indicate  that 
there  are  three  million  acres  of  woodland  in  the  state  and  six  million 
acres  more  of  non-agricultural  land,  making  about  twenty-five  per 
cent  of  the  land  of  the  state  of  a  character  that  invites  serious  con- 
sideration from  a  forestry  standpoint. 

Two  features  of  forestry  policy  are  apparent,  the  improvement  of 
the  woodlands  which  we  have  and  tree  planting  on  non-agricultural 
land.  Just  as  a  good  stand  of  corn  is  necessary  to  secure  the  maximum 
crop,  so  a  full  stand  of  timber  is  necessary  to  secure  the  best  results. 
Interplanting  in  scanty  forested  woodlands  would  seem  to  be  the  first 
step  in  a  forestry  program.  For  the  best  result  stock  should  be  ex- 
cluded ;  indeed,  in  a  fairly  wooded  pasture  the  grazing  is  of  no  great 
value,  and  the  damage  that  stock  can  do  to  the  young  growth  is  con- 
siderable. Exclusion  of  stock  permits  the  formation  of  a  forest  mould, 
so  essential  to  the  best  forest  growth. 

Forestry  on  unwooded,  non-agricultural  land  presents  another 
problem,  that  of  solid  tree  planting,  the  treatment  required  depend- 
ing upon  the  soil.  Sandy,  rocky,  gullied  or  overflowed  land  each  pre- 
sents problems  peculiar  to  itself,  the  variety  or  varieties  to  be  planted 
requiring  study  and  investigation.  The  harvesting  and  marketing  of 
mature  trees  require  attention.  The  study  of  insect  enemies  and 
fungous  diseases  will  be  necessary  if  a  state-wide  forestry  policy  is  de- 
cided upon. 

In  all  fairness  it  seems  that  an  area  as  large  as  twenty-five  per 

120 


FARM  FORESTRY  121 

cent  of  the  land  of  the  state,  which  is  not  very  productive,  is  of  enough 
importance  to  be  worthy  of  serious  consideration.  A  tax  exemption 
law  of  some  kind  for  non-revenue  producing  forest  lands  and  a  system 
of  insurance  against  fire  are  two  very  important  factors  to  be  con- 
sidered. The  government  subsidizes  men  to  raise  sugar  and  cotton. 
It  protects  the  infant  industries,  but  it  penalizes  the  farmer  with  a 
high  tax  when  he  wants  to  raise  trees.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  a 
movement  should  be  started  to  exempt  the  land  devoted  to  forestry 
from  taxation  until  the  trees  come  to  an  age  when  it  will  be  profitable 
to  log  them.  It  might  well  be  a  real  job  for  the  State  Forester  to 
pass  upon  the  condition  of  land  that  would  exempt  it  from  taxation. 
We  must  do  something  to  encourage  the  planting  of  trees;  it  takes 
years  before  a  tree  arrives  at  a  stage  where  any  profit  can  be  got  from 
it,  and  in  that  time  encouragement  should  be  given  to  the  possessor 
and  caretaker  of  the  trees. 

I  have  lived  my  life  near  the  Mississippi  River,  and  I  can  re- 
member a  time  when  there  was  not  an  hour  of  the  day  but  what 
great  rafts  of  pine  logs  went  down  the  river.  This  has  all  stopped. 
I  saw  the  last  raft  go  down  the  river.  There  were  days  when  good 
white  pine  lumber  sold  for  two  dollars  a  thousand  feet.  There  is 
a  lumber  yard  near  my  home  which  was  once  prosperous.  The  man 
in  charge  used  to  be  the  yard  boss,  but  now  there  are  only  two  men 
there,  the  boss  and  another  man. 

Is  it  not  high  time  that  we  did  something  on  our  own  good  land 
to  supply  the  demand  for  lumber  ?  We  have  heard  considerable  talk 
here  that  we  must  reduce  the  crop  of  corn.  To  me  it  seems  that 
we  must  raise  corn  where  corn  can  be  raised.  If  it  costs  three  times 
as  much  to  raise  corn  in  one  place  than  in  another,  is  it  not  good 
policy  to  use  the  land  that  cannot  raise  corn  profitably  for  some  other 
purpose?  Fifty  per  cent  of  the  corn  acreage  in  Illinois  is  raised  on 
land  that  never  has  paid  and  never  will  pay  for  raising  corn.  If  we 
can  devote  that  land  to  some  other  purpose,  we  will  be  better  off. 
True  conservation  consists  of  putting  land  to  that  use  for  which  it 
is  best  fitted  and  can  be  most  profitably  used. 


CAN  ILLINOIS  COME  BACK  AS  A  STOCK 
BREEDING  GROUND? 

W.  S.  CORSA,  White  Hall 

HE  title  of  the  topic  assigned  carries  not  only  an  invitation 
to  a  discussion  of  the  problems  of  live-stock  breeding  in 
Illinois,  but  a  challenge  to  her  live-stock  breeders  as  well. 
We  accept  both  the  invitation  and  the  challenge.  We 
recall  full  well  the  outposts  of  the  pioneers  upon  the 
prairies  and  the  wooded  grasslands  of  Illinois.  The  names 
of  such  worthies  as  Brown,  Pickrell,  Potts,  Huston,  Lovejoy,  Dun- 
ham, Pierce,  Goodwin,  Judy,  and  the  beneficence  of  their  work  de- 
scends to  us  as  a  precious  heritage.  Along  with  the  inspiration  of 
their  example  and  accomplishment,  we  still  have  a  notable  member- 
ship of  constructive,  aggressive  live-stock  breeders,  whose  purposes, 
ideals,  and  methods  are  endeavoring  to  uphold  the  prestige  and  pros- 
perity of  our  commonwealth.  In  this  they  are  tremendously 
aided  by — 

THE  NATURAL  ADVANTAGES  OF  ILLINOIS  FOR  THE  PRODUCTION 

OF  LIVE  STOCK 

Foremost  among  these  natural  advantages,  as  it  appeals  to  me, 
is  our  wealth  of  limestone  and  its  availability  within  comparatively 
easy  reach  of  every  farm.  At  moderate  cost  we  can  command  this 
essential  in  live-stock  production.  With  limestone  in  our  soil  to  be 
transmuted  through  the  chemistry  of  the  crops  into  the  bone  and 
tissue  of  our  live  stock  we  may  labor  happily  and  confidently  through 
the  years,  giving  play  to  our  fancy  as  to  type;  we  can  bank  upon 
the  results  of  our  previous  work;  we  can  go  forward  unafraid  that 
our  soil  conditions  will  crumble  our  efforts.  If  we  obtain  a  desirable 
size  in  our  live  stock  we  can  maintain  it.  We  are  free  from  this 
dread  struggle  which  is  ever  present  for  the  live-stock  breeder  over 
vast  live-stock  areas  such  as  Canada  and  the  Argentine.  Illinois  may 
always  expect  visits  of  live-stock  breeders  from  those  countries.  The 
same  compelling  reason  as  theirs  prompts  many  of  our  sister  states 
to  consider  favorably  Illinois  live-stock  productions,  and  this  probably 
always  will  be  so. 

Furthermore  the  central  location  of  Illinois  may  be  counted  upon 
as  insuring  constantly  recurring  visits  of  live-stock  breeders  from 
other  states.  The  main  arteries  of  transportation  East  and  West, 

122 


A  STOCK  BREEDING  GROUND  123 

reaching  into  the  great  Southwest  and  to  the  North,  pass  through  the 
gateways  of  our  state.  Men  may  readily  come  here  upon  special 
mission  or  stop  in  transit.  Many  a  visitor  has  come  to  the  live-stock 
breeding  farms  of  Illinois  direct  from  the  central  markets.  It  was 
convenient  for  him  to  make  the  trip  from  such  a  point.  He  handles 
live  stock  commercially  in  a  large  way,  and  he  is  in  need  of  a  bit  of 
live-stock  leaven.  And  yet  at  no  other  time  and  under  no  other  cir- 
cumstance would  he  have  come  to  the  Illinois  farm.  Proximity  to 
the  central  live-stock  markets  is  a  natural  and  material  advantage 
to  breeders  of  purebred  live  stock  fortunate  enough  to  live  and 
operate  in  Illinois. 

Possibly  a  less  tangible  advantage,  but  nevertheless  one  of  far 
greater  significance  and  real  value  attaching  to  purebred  live-stock 
breeding  in  -this  state,  is  the  circumstance  that  Illinois  is  the  home  of 
the  "International."  It  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  that  annually 
marvelous  exposition.  When  traveling  in  other  states  I  have  been 
repeatedly  distressed  to  hear  young  men  of  eager  enthusiasm  regret, 
as  under  recent  financial  conditions,  their  prohibitive  distance  from 
this  final  court  of  adjudication  of  supreme  live-stock  merit.  These 
men  wonder  that  all  inhabitants  of  Illinois  interested  in  live  stock  do 
not  always  attend  the  "International."  And  the  answer  is  that 
Illinois  people,  manufacturers,  merchants,  and  mechanics,  as  well  as 
live-stock  men,  are  coming  more  and  more  by  their  presence  at  the 
"International"  to  sense  the  value  of  this  rigid  short  course  in  live- 
stock husbandry. 

SOME  DRAWBACKS 

With  all  of  our  natural  advantages  there  are  some  drawbacks 
to  be  met  in  Illinois  in  the  production  of  purebred  live  stock.  Our 
state  has  no  monopoly  of  these  hindrances,  which  for  the  most  part 
are  simply  useless  and  unnecessary  drags  upon  our  business  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  state.  It  has  seemed,  and  is  still  evident,  that  in 
Illinois  there  is  a  marked  lack  of  esprit  de  corps  among  live-stock 
breeders.  This  lack  is  being  overcome,  in  a  measure,  in  state  breed 
associations  among  the  adherents  of  the  various  breeds ;  but  this  spirit 
is  more  or  less  absent  among  those  interested  in  somewhat  competitive 
breeds  and  it  is  notably  absent  among  the  supporters  of  non- 
competitive  breeds.  The  interest  of  the  beef  breeds  in  one  another 
is  that  of  mere  decency,  and  possibly  the  same  may  be  said  of  the 
dairy  interests.  The  hog  men  have  made  marked  progress  in  their 
get-together  spirit;  but  the  horsemen  are  tightening  the  traces  of 


124  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

their  own  load,  oblivious  of  the  troubles  of  others.  The  fact  remains 
that  we  are  all  part  and  parcel  of  the  great  live-stock  industry  of 
Illinois  in  which  the  human  equation  will  largely  delimit  results  for 
ourselves,  for  one  another,  and  for  Illinois.  The  area  of  Illinois  is 
neither  so  great,  nor  is  her  heart  so  small,  that  she  cannot  successfully 
foster  the  sentiment  of  state  pride  among  her  children  who  breed  and 
feed  live  stock. 

The  banker  indifferent  to  live  stock,  and  especially  to  purebred 
stock,  has  been  found  occasionally  in  Illinois.  He  is  more  frequently 
encountered  in  this  state  than  in  states  farther  west,  where,  in  nor- 
mal times,  especially  low  terms  and  long-time  loans  are  waiting  for 
the  man  who  is  willing  to  undertake  the  improvement  of  the  live- 
stock population.  Fortunately,  however,  a  great  number  of  bankers 
in  Illinois  have  the  foresight  and  vision  to  see  the  end  .of  the  road 
of  exclusive  grain  farming,  or  even  of  a  live-stock  industry  based 
on  scrub  animals.  It  is  not  always  the  money  of  the  banker  that  is 
wanted — in  fact,  it  may  not  be  desirable  that  the  breeder  should  have 
it — but  what  is  needed  is  an  intelligent  sympathy  and  understanding 
on  the  part  of  the  banker  which  will  make  him  able  and  willing  to 
give  counsel  and,  where  advisable,  to  render  financial  help.  The 
lack  of  this  mutual  confidence  has  doubtless  been  frequently  responsi- 
ble for  individual  disaster  among  live-stock  men.  And  any  great 
number  of  such  occurrences  in  a  community  means  one  of  two  things : 
Either  the  community  will  settle  down  content  with  a  very  inferior 
and  constantly  deteriorating  class  of  live  stock,  or  its  money  will  be 
constantly  going  away  from  home  for  such  stock  as  it  needs.  The 
banker  will  be  affected  either  way. 

It  is  strange  that  the  state  policy  of  Illinois  should  not  be  clearly 
and  at  the  same  time  generously  defined  relative  to  promoting  its 
own  welfare  through  the  purebred  live-stock  industry.  It  is  re- 
grettable that  some  of  its  officers  in  the  person  of  unwise  assessors 
should  officiously  put  the  brakes  on  her  welfare.  Fortunately,  how- 
ever, for  the  state,  many  men  of  discretion  and  judgment  acting  as 
assessors  recognize  the  great  assessable  wealth  spread  over  the  com- 
munity through  the  enterprise  and  judgment  of  the  purebred  live- 
stock breeder.  It  is  plainly  unfair  and  even  folly  to  tax  the  price 
which  a  breeder  may  have  wisely  or  unwisely  paid  for  an  animal. 
Purebred  and  registered  live  stock  should  be  assessed  in  accordance 
with  their  merit  in  the  regular  tax  classification.  That  is  to  say, 
if  top  quality  milk  cows  are  assessed  at  fifty  dollars,  then  the  indi- 
viduals of  a  herd  of  purebred  Holsteins  or  Jerseys  should  be  rated  at 
fifty  dollars. 


A  STOCK  BREEDING  GROUND  125 

A  drawback  to  purebred  live-stock  raising  in  Illinois,  as  elsewhere, 
is  the  excessive  transportation  charge  for  purebred  live  stock  in 
express  and  freight  rates.  It  is  necessary  only  to  point  out  that  the 
tariff  is  loaded  with  double  and  triple  the  weights  of  the  actual  ani- 
mals, and  that  the  rates  are  at  the  uppermost  limit.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  in  Canada,  where  the  pure-bred  industry  is  wisely  cultivated, 
such  pure-bred  live  stock  may  be  transported  at  a  reduced  rate.  In 
fact,  on  a  recent  shipment  of  horses  from  White  Hall,  Illinois,  into 
Canada,  the  charge  was  as  great  to  Detroit  as  to  a  point  one  hundred 
miles  farther  on  in  Canada,  on  a  through  bill  of  lading  over  the 
same  road. 

WHY  ILLINOIS  WILL  COME  BACK 

The  purebred  business  in  Illinois  is  a  going  concern.  That  being 
a  fact,  the  live-stock  breeder  is  now  finding  himself  fairly  com- 
fortably situated  as  to  cost  of  production  and  the  imminence  of  his 
market.  It  will  be  well  indeed  for  the  breeder  and  his  community 
when  they  recognize  their  mutual  dependence  and  benefit.  Really 
the  live-stock  field  in  Illinois  has  only  been  summer  fallowed.  A 
greater  market  awaits  the  Illinois  purebred  live-stock  breeder  within 
the  boundary  of  his  own  state  lines  than  most  men  ever  dreamed  of 
acquiring.  The  saving  in  railroad  fares  and  freights,  the  oppor- 
tunity of  inspecting  the  parent  breeding  stock  and  the  farm  practise 
employed,  all  will  serve  more  and  more  to  develop  the  home  market. 

In  the  economy  of  live-stock  production  our  comparatively 
favorable  rates  to  the  central  markets  mean  much.  No  breeder  may 
hope  to  reach  the  high  rounds  who  invariably  sells  all  of  his  best 
productions.  Again,  no  breeder  who  keeps  all,  or  any  great  part,  of 
his  poorer  productions  may  hope  to  accomplish  any  good  for  himself 
or  his  breed.  The  road  for  these  poorer  specimens  to  take,  in  ever 
increasing  numbers,  is  to  the  central  markets.  Cull,  eliminate,  ship 
and  repeat.  Feed  the  best  to  the  best  and  ship  the  rest.  If  this  is 
the  policy,  then  Illinois  will  come  back  and  we  will  come  back  with 
her. 

Indeed,  Illinois  must  come  back.  Her  present  land  values  de- 
mand products  of  higher  quality  and  value.  The  overhead  of  every 
farm — and  this  somewhat  indefinite  but  very  real  item  of  expense  is 
quite  likely  to  grow  rather  than  diminish — calls  not  only  for  economy 
of  production,  but  for  quality  as  well.  Quantity  in  the  production 
of  live  stock  is  not  always  a  blessing.  In  fact,  as  has  been  well  said, 
there  may  be  a  "curse  of  prolificacy."  The  female  that  with  per- 


126  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

sistent  regularity  ushers  misfits  into  the  world  should  be  discarded. 
The  more  of  her  kind  we  have  the  worse  off  we  are,  and  the  longer 
will  Illinois  be  in  coming  back. 

The  higher  quality  productions  demanded  by  present  land 
values  must  be  found  generally  distributed  over  our  state  in  the  form 
of  high-grade  herds,  flocks,  and  studs;  and  this,  not  alone  for  the 
recompense  which  will  warrant  present  land  values,  but  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  life  and  health  of  our  soil,  our  live  stock,  and  our 
people.  So,  to  some  of  us,  it  has  seemed  unfortunate  that  the  attitude 
and  teaching  of  our  Agricultural  College  has  apparently  been  mis- 
understood. Valuable  as  is  the  wonderful  trinity  of  limestone,  phos- 
phorus, and  legumes,  it  further  requires  the  participation  of  live  stock 
to  form  the  four-square  quartet  that  is  the  invincible  basis  of  Illinois 
agriculture. 

Among  the  agencies  powerfully  helping  Illinois  to  come  back 
in  live-stock  production  is  her  College  of  Agriculture.  Many  friends 
of  the  College,  recognizing  the  purity  of  her  purpose  in  withdrawing 
the  College  team,  some  years  since,  from  intercollegiate  judging  con- 
tests, are  greatly  pleased  that  she  can  now  see  her  way  clear  to  re- 
enter  the  lists.  We  believe  this  will  meet  with  the  hearty  approval 
of  the  live-stock  interests  of  Illinois  and  go  a  long  way  toward  help- 
ing Illinois  to  come  back,  through  the  awakened  enthusiasm  of  her 
student  body.  Further,  may  I  suggest  that  the  good  work  of  bringing 
the  live-stock  breeders  to  the  College  be  supplemented  by  taking  the 
College  to  the  breeders.  Some  of  the  live-stock  breeders  of  Illinois 
feel  that  today  they  have  more  friends  among  the  under-graduates 
and  alumni  of  our  sister  state  institutions  than  of  their  own  state 
Agricultural  College.  This  is  simply  because,  from  time  to  time, 
delegations  of  such  students  from  states — not  in  every  instance,  neigh- 
boring states — have  repeatedly  visited  the  live-stock  breeding  farms  of 
Illinois.  The  breeder  of  purebred  live  stock  appreciates  the  stimulus 
and  encouragement  which  comes  from  the  personal  visits  of  the  under- 
graduates and  the  instructors  of  the  agricultural  colleges,  but  more 
especially  does  he  appreciate  those  from  the  college  of  his  own  state. 

A  very  desirable  contact  is  established  between  the  breeders  and 
the  Agricultural  College  when  it  fosters  state  breed  associations.  The 
annual  meeting  of  the  Illinois  Percheron  Breeders'  Association,  just 
held  here,  reflects  the  steadying  influence  of  the  College  through  the 
quiet,  thoughtful  guidance  of  the  State  Association,  from  its  organi- 
zation to  the  present,  by  a  valued  member  of  your  staff. 

To  aid  her  in  coming  back,  Illinois  has  a  new  and  mighty  helper. 
He  is  full  of  the  enthusiasm  of  youth,  he  is  rich  in  the  experience  of 


A  STOCK  BREEDING  GROUND  127 

the  ages,  his  pleasure  is  in  service  to  others.  His  name  is  "County 
Adviser."  Selected  and  fitted  for  his  work,  from  his  youth  up,  by 
the  Agricultural  College,  we  can  depend  upon  his  energetic  support 
of  the  higher  and  better  things  in  Illinois  agriculture.  He  is  in 
almost  every  county,  reaching  to  the  uttermost  township,  encourag- 
ing the  beginner,  aiding  the  more  experienced,  organizing  both  for 
business.  His  intelligent  direction  of  community  effort  is  starting 
something.  It  is  Illinois  coming  back.  Already  she  is  on  her  way. 
Illinois'  pride  in  past  performance,  her  natural  advantages,  her 
Agricultural  College,  the  spur  of  her  necessity,  these  will  not  com- 
pletely bring  Illinois  back.  In  the  last  analysis,  that  is  up  to  the  men 
and  women  of  Illinois.  Illinois  is  relying  today  upon  the  love  and 
affection  of  her  children  to  bring  her  home.  Her  men,  now  as  of 
old,  are  men  of  courage  and  of  industry.  They  are  not  lacking  in 
gratitude  for  the  rich  inheritance  of  a  good  name,  and  a  fertile  soil, 
and  they  pledge  themselves  to  pass  this  on  unsullied  and  unimpaired. 
They  have  the  vision  to  know  that  changing  times  do  not  change  the 
eternal  principles  of  a  permanent  agriculture.  They  have  faith  to 
believe  that  the  opportunities  of  that  agriculture  will  come  again — 

"They  do  me  wrong  who  say  I  come  no  more, 
When  once  I  call  and  fail  to  find  you  in. 
For  every  day  I  stand  outside  your  door — 
And  bid  you  wake,  and  rise  to  fight  and  win." 


THE  OUTLOOK  FOR  LIVE  STOCK  IN  ILLINOIS 

H.  W.  MUM  FORD,  Professor  of  Animal  Husbandry,  and 
Director  of  Live  Stock  Marketing,  Illinois  Agricultural  Association 


N  THE  agricultural  development  of  the  corn  belt  of  the 
United  States,  Illinois  early  occupied  a  prominent  place. 
In  this  development,  live-stock  production  played  an  im- 
portant part. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  deal  with  the  historical 
phases  of  live-stock  production  in  the  state;  but  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  a  proper  perspective  of  the  outlook  for  the 
industry  in  Illinois  it  may  be  pointed  out  very  properly  that  Illinois 
breeders  and  feeders  have  occupied  for  many  years  an  important  place 
in  live-stock  affairs.  In  1860  Illinois  ranked  third  among  the  states 
of  the  Union  in  the  value  of  her  live  stock,  in  1870  second,  in  1880 
first,  and  in  1900  dropped  back  to  third  place  which  position  has 
been  maintained. 

The  importance  of  live  stock  to  the  agriculture  of  a  state,  how- 
ever, is  not  to  be  measured  in  numbers  or  even  in  value  but  rather 
by  the  contribution  that  live  stock  has  made  to  its  agricultural 
development.  In  the  development  of  agricultural  policies  in  the  past 
too  little  consideration  has  been  given  to  the  various  factors  which 
have  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  development  of  particular  phases  of 
agricultural  production,  such  as  suitability  of  soil  and  climate,  avail- 
able markets,  labor  supply,  likes  and  dislikes  of  farmers  themselves, 
and  in  some  instances,  as  in  meat  and  milk  production,  the  inter- 
dependence upon  other  phases  of  agricultural  production. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  and  encouraging  sign  in  connection 
with  live-stock  production  in  the  state  of  Illinois  is  the  tendency  to 
consider  it  in  its  national  and  even  international  aspects  and  to  rec- 
ognize it  in  its  relation  to  the  farm  business  as  a  whole  and  not  as  a 
more  or  less  separate  and  independent  unit  of  the  farm  business. 
The  more  persistently  these  considerations  are  kept  in  mind,  the 
more  wisely  and  more  permanently  will  the  animal  industry  of  the 
state  be  developed  and  guided  into  the  most  logical  and  profitable 
direction. 

FACTORS  AFFECTING  THE  FUTURE  OF  LIVE-STOCK  PRODUCTION 
IN  ILLINOIS 

Most  of  the  conditions  that  led  to  the  prominence  of  live-stock 
production  in  Illinois  in  the  past  will  continue  to  be  determining 

128 


OUTLOOK  FOR  LIVE  STOCK  129 

factors  affecting  the  future  of  live  stock  in  the  state.     Some  of  the 
more  important  of  these  conditions  are — 

(a)  The  large  production  of  corn  and  oats.    According  to  the 
Census  of  1920,  Iowa  and  Illinois  produced  twenty-eight  per  cent  of 
all  the  corn  produced  in  the  United  States  in   1919.     These  two 
states  sold  nearly  half,  forty-eight  per  cent  to  be  exact,  of  the  total 
corn  sold  from  the  farms  of  the  country.     Illinois  leads  as  a  corn- 
surplus  state.     In  oats,  Iowa  and  Illinois  produced  thirty  per  cent  of 
the  total  produced  in  the  United  States  and  sold  45.6  per  cent  of 
the  total.    Iowa  leads  as  the  oat-surplus  state. 

The  fact  that  Illinois  is  one  of  the  leading  corn-producing  and 
corn-surplus  states  of  the  corn  belt  goes  a  long  way  toward  deter- 
mining the  direction  which  live-stock  production  has  and  should 
logically  take ;  viz.,  that  type  of  animal  production  in  which  a  rela- 
tively abundant  and  easily  available  supply  of  grain  is  essential.  As 
examples  of  this  type,  we  have  meat  and  milk  production  in  the  form 
of  beef,  mutton,  pork,  poultry,  and  dairy  products.  The  time  will 
come  if  indeed  it  is  not  already  here,  when  widespread,  small-scale 
live-stock  production  as  a  conserver  of  grain-growing  residues  on  most 
farms  will  not  be  despised.  Every  grain  farmer  is  vitally  concerned 
in  the  preservation  of  the  live-stock  industry.  Under  normal  condi- 
tions approximately  80  per  cent  of  the  corn,  63  per  cent  of  the  barley, 
39  per  cent  of  the  oats,  and  12  per  cent  of  the  wheat  is  fed  to  live 
stock. 

(b)  A  considerable  area,  approximately  seventeen  per  cent  of 
the  land  acreage  in  the  state,  is  suitable  primarily  for  pasture.     If 
one  will  take  the  trouble  to  inventory  the  agricultural  resources  of 
the  state  suitable  for  live-stock  production,  he  will  find  that  there  are 
in  addition  to  considerable  areas  of  land,  very  large  quantities  of 
feed  that  cannot  be  utilized  advantageously  in  any  other  way.     If 
the  area  in  cultivation  were  increased  to  the  highest  possible  state 
of  intensity,  there  would  be  a  decrease  of  the  amount  of  land  available 
for  pasture  but  there  would  be  an  actual  increase  of  available  food 
for  live  stock. 

(c)  Illinois  is  favorably  located  with  reference  to  the  leading 
live-stock  markets  of  the  country.     It  is  doubtless  true  that  live-stock 
producers  in  Illinois  are  at  a  slight  disadvantage,  when  it  comes  to 
buying  corn  for  finishing  live  stock  for  market,  as  compared  with 
some  other  corn-belt  states.    On  the  other  hand,  no  other  state  is  so 
favorably  located  with  reference  to  nearness  to  the  great  live-stock 
markets  of  the  country. 


130  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

NATIONAL  CONSIDERATIONS 

In  determining  live-stock  production  policies  for  Illinois  it  is 
necessary  to  approach  the  subject  from  a  national  as  well  as  a  state 
standpoint. 

Speaking  generally,  live-stock  production  has  not  kept  pace  with 
the  increase  in  population.  It  might  be  expected  that  this  growing 
tendency  would  bring  about  a  shortage  which  would  favorably  affect 
prices  of  live  stock  in  the  markets  of  the  country,  and  to  such  an  extent 
that  live-stock  production  would  be  stimulated.  The  fact  is  however 
that,  disregarding  the  war  period,  the  margin  of  profit  in  the  produc- 
tion of  beef,  mutton  and  pork  has  been  narrowing  for  a  considerable 
number  of  years.  In  very  many  cases  it  has  disappeared  altogether, 
and  not  infrequently  very  large  losses  have  resulted. 

It  is,  I  believe,  literally  true  that  one  of  the  largest  factors 
affecting  live-stock  production  policies  has  been  the  fact  that  farmers 
find  it  increasingly  difficult  to  make  the  finishing  of  beef  cattle 
profitable.  The  anticipated  shortage  has  failed  to  materialize,  largely, 
it  is  believed,  because  of  the  falling  off  of  our  export  demand  for  beef, 
due  to  the  competition  of  Argentina,  which  has  the  advantage  from 
the  standpoint  of  cheapness  of  production.  Similar  analysis  might 
be  made  of  the  mutton  and  wool  industries.  Looking  forward,  it  is 
logical  to  anticipate  that  the  competition  in  the  meat  markets  of  the 
world  by  such  countries  as  Argentina,  Brazil,  Mexico,  and  South 
Africa  will  increase  rather  than  diminish.  Just  what  effect  that  will 
have  upon  live-stock  production  in  Illinois  and  the  United  States 
should  be  given  the  most  careful  consideration.  These  facts  are 
stated  to  emphasize  the  international  aspects  of  live-stock  production. 

DEMAND  FOR  ECONOMY  IN  PRODUCTION  AND  IN  MARKETING 

No  proper  consideration  of  the  outlook  for  live  stock  in  Illinois 
can  be  complete  without  due  regard  to  the  trend  of  production  and 
an  examination  of  the  causes  of  such  tendencies.  It  is  reasonable 
to  conclude  that  in  the  main  these  tendencies  are  the  normal  result 
of  changing  conditions  which  are  likely  to  continue  to  operate  and 
which  are  certain  to  affect  the  agricultural  policy  of  the  state. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  live-stock  producer,  any  condition 
or  circumstance  which  stimulates  production  abnormally,  whether  due 
to  temporary  high  prices  or  to  zealous  advocates,  is  likely  to  be 
followed  by  disastrous  results  to  the  producer.  On  the  other  hand, 
depressing  conditions  which  tend  to  large  reduction  in  our  flocks  and 
herds,  threaten  the  normal  supply  of  meat  and  are  therefore  of  con- 


OUTLOOK  FOR  LIVE  STOCK  131 

cern  to  the  public.  It  is  therefore  desirable  that  producers  should  as 
rapidly  as  possible  approach  an  equilibrium  in  live-stock  production, 
where  the  total  production  more  nearly  conforms  to  a  normal  demand 
for  domestic  meat  products;  and  should  formulate  plans  for  the 
supplying  of  the  markets  with  this  live  stock  in  quantities  and  kinds 
required.  In  this  work  Illinois  will  need  to  join  with  other  states 
and  act  in  harmony  with  them. 

As  this  country  grows  older  and  the  population  becomes  more 
dense,  the  demand  for  cheap  food  will  become  more  intense.  This 
means,  among  other  things,  that  if  the  laboring  man,  who  should 
always  be  our  largest  consumer  of  meat,  is  able  to  eat  as  much  meat  as 
the  nature  of  his  work  requires,  it  must  be  furnished  to  him  at  a  price 
that  is  reasonable  in  comparison  with  other  foods. 

This  fact  alone  will  force  the  practise  of  the  greatest  economy 
in  the  production  and  distribution  of  meat.  Already  there  is  no 
possibility  of  the  producer  securing  adequate  profit  in  the  production 
of  live  stock  by  following  wasteful  methods  of  production.  In  order 
that  the  producer  may  receive  the  full  benefit  of  a  normal  demand 
for  his  product,  the  costs  of  marketing  and  of  the  distribution  of 
meats  to  the  ultimate  consumer  are  in  importance  second  only  to  that 
of  economical  production. 

Much  work  has  been  done  to  improve  methods  of  maintaining, 
fattening,  and  breeding  of  beef  cattle.  There  still  remains  much  to 
be  done,  particularly  with  reference  to  establishing  rather  definitely 
the  place  of  the  beef  cow  and  the  steer  in  systems  of  farming  adapted 
to  Illinois  conditions. 

THE  DAIRY  PROBLEM 

The  live-stock  problem  as  it  relates  to  beef  cattle  and  to  dairy 
cattle  seems  to  be  different  in  some  respects.  The  community  and 
the  individuals  in  a  community  who  are  in  the  dairy  business  are  more 
prosperous  if  they  do  not  depend  alone  on  milk  production  for  their 
profit,  but  on  the  selling  of  improved  live  stock  as  well  as  milk.  That 
is,  the  successful  dairyman  must  be  a  breeder  of  dairy  cattle  as  well 
as  a  producer  of  milk.  This  applies  as  much  to  grade  cattle  as  to  pure- 
bred cattle. 

The  man  who  approaches  the  dairy  problem  from  the  standpoint 
of  raising  dairy  stock  both  for  his  own  future  herd  and  also  to  sell, 
requires  a  higher  degree  of  intelligence.  The  production  of  milk 
alone  as  a  source  of  income  tends  all  the  time  to  give  inadequate 
attention  to  the  health  question  of  the  cattle.  Whereas  the  man  who 
is  breeding  his  own  cattle  for  a  future  herd,  expecting  to  get  a  part  of 


132  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

his  income  from  the  cattle  he  breeds  as  well  as  from  the  milk,  finds  it 
necessary  to  look  after  the  health  of  his  cattle,  so  the  whole  health 
problem  is  involved  in  that  system  of  dairy  farming. 

It  appears  that  the  more  prosperous  dairy  communities  are  those 
in  which  this  dual-purpose  is  the  aim  of  the  individuals  in  the  busi- 
ness. Such  a  system  of  dairy  farming  in  any  community  or  around 
any  center  will  tend  also  to  a  more  even  supply  of  milk.  The  dual 
purpose  in  the  dairy  business  leads  to  efficiency  in  production  because 
the  breeding  of  better  dairy  cattle  leads  to  the  production  of  a  more 
efficient  cow,  cheapens  production,  and  increases  profits  at  the  same 
time ;  while  the  other  does  not  necessarily  tend  that  way. 

The  future  of  dairying  in  Illinois  will  be  very  directly  affected 
by  the  improvement  in  the  milk  marketing  situation  throughout  the 
state.  More  attention  should  be  given  to  developing  a  market  that 
will  recognize  quality  in  milk. 

The  kind  of  dairy  farming  referred  to  does  not  confine  itself  to 
milk  production,  because  the  sale  of  cattle  is  another  profitable  phase 
of  the  industry,  and  there  is  a  marketing  problem  in  the  sale  of  cattle 
as  well  as  in  the  sale  of  milk.  It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  prosperity 
of  the  dairy  industry  hinges  upon  a  better  marketing  plan  both  for 
milk  and  for  dairy  cattle.  In  the  marketing  of  dairy  cattle  the  thing 
that  we  need  to  improve,  in  order  to  make  that  end  of  the  business 
prosperous,  is  the  health  of  the  cattle ;  and  then  we  need  to  establish 
a  reputation  that  is  comparable  with  the  health  and  quality  of  these 
cattle. 

THE  PLACE  OF  OTHER  LIVE  STOCK 

Not  even  a  brief  discussion  of  the  future  of  live  stock  in  Illinois 
would  be  complete  without  recognizing  the  very  large  place  that  swine 
will  most  certainly  occupy.  In  this,  as  in  all  other  live-stock  enter- 
prises, new  problems  are  constantly  being  presented;  and  upon  the 
satisfactory  solution  of  these  the  future  of  the  industry  will  depend. 
Swine  diseases,  and  the  most  profitable  type  of  hog  for  corn-belt  farms, 
are  among  the  problems  requiring  the  most  thoro  study. 

The  poultry  industry,  the  importance  of  which  in  this  state  is 
not  generally  recognized,  will  more  and  more  force  its  claims  upon 
the  consideration  of  producers  and  the  public.  It  will  not  be 
unexpected  if  this  industry  records  a  very  marked  development  in  the 
state  during  the  next  ten  years. 

I  can  see  no  good  reason  why  the  business  of  finishing  and  fat- 
tening sheep  and  lambs  for  market  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  keeping 
of  small  farm  flocks,  should  not  be  extended  in  this  state. 


OUTLOOK  FOR  LIVE  STOCK  133 

The  horse,  so  recently  threatened  with  banishment  from  corn- 
belt  farms  has  demonstrated  that  he  still  deserves  a  place  on  every 
farm  and  for  short  haul  work  in  cities.  The  location  of  the  state,  and 
the  long  years  of  successful  experience  of  Illinois  farmers  in  horse 
production,  point  to  the  conclusion  that  there  should  be  some  profit 
to  a  community  in  producing  its  own  work  stock,  with  possibly  some 
surplus  to  sell. 

FUTURE  LINES  OF  DEVELOPMENT 

Broadly  speaking,  it  is  difficult  at  a  time  when  agriculture 
is  in  such  a  disturbed  condition  as  it  is  at  present,  to  forecast  the 
future  of  live  stock  in  Illinois.  Notwithstanding  this,  it  is  all  the 
more  desirable  to  take  a  forward  Ipok  and  indicate  along  what  lines 
our  thought  and  action  should  lie,  keeping  in  mind  that  some  of  our 
conclusions  will  most  likely  need  revision  as  the  agriculture  of  the 
country  returns  to  a  more  normal  state. 

More  economical  production  may  still  be  effected  as  a  result  of 
further  investigations  in  animal  breeding  and  feeding. 

In  the  selection  of  breeding  stock  of  dairy  cattle,  meat  animals, 
or  poultry,  we  follow  rather  blindly  the  traditions  and  standards 
handed  down  to  us  from  the  past,  without  much  knowledge,  except 
in  dairy  cattle,  whether  those  standards  are  justified  by  the  capacity 
of  the  animal  to  produce  economically.  A  thoro  testing  of  present 
standards  for  the  selection  of  animals  for  various  purposes  such  as 
meat,  milk,  and  work  is  sorely  needed.  Not  much  progress  has  been 
made  in  developing  practicable  methods  of  measuring  the  efficiency 
of  breeding  animals  of  the  meat-producing  types. 

There  is  need  for  a  greater  degree  of  independent  thought  and 
action  among  live-stock  breeders.  Perhaps  to  too  large  an  extent 
have  breeders  silently  submitted  to  the  fixation  of  types  in  our  breeds 
by  individuals  and  groups  whose  chief  thought  was  more  the  com- 
mercialization of  an  idea  than  its  utility.  In  general,  live-stock 
breeders,  while  displaying  great  skill  in  the  development  of  animals 
to  meet  the  standards  of  the  show  ring,  have  lacked  courage  in  giving 
proper  recognition  to  the  development  of  breeding  animals  with  the 
usefulness  of  the  animal  in  the  every-day  economy  of  the  farm  pri- 
marily in  mind.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  will  be  one  of  the  sig- 
nificant developments  of  the  next  twenty-five  years. 

The  development  of  disease  resistant  strains,  within  our  im- 
proved breeds  of  animals,  offers  a  fertile  field  of  inquiry. 


134  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

When  it  comes  to  practicable  methods  of  extending  the  influence 
of  better  live  stock  throughout  the  state,  a  further  development  of 
community  live-stock  breeding  projects  gives  much  promise. 

A  large  field  is  still  open  in  the  direction  of  research.  Studies 
should  be  conducted  to  ascertain  the  energy  requirements  of  sheep, 
swine,  and  horses ;  the  factors  which  modify  these  requirements,  par- 
ticularly the  age  of  the  animal,  its  size,  condition,  and  the  atmospheric 
conditions ;  the  efficiency  of  the  horse  in  the  performance  of  different 
kinds  of  farm  operations ;  and  the  efficiency  of  the  conversion  of  the 
energy  of  feeds  into  meat,  milk,  and  work,  particularly  as  affected 
by  light,  medium,  and  heavy  rations. 

The  fact  that  the  future  of  live  stock  in  Illinois  will  to  a  large 
extent  be  shaped  by  the  agricultural  policy  of  the  Nation,  particularly 
of  the  corn  belt,  and  by  the  larger  movements  in  agricultural  pro- 
duction in  the  world  at  large  is  unescapable.  Because  so  much 
depends  upon  what  the  state  as  a  whole,  the  Nation,  and  the  world 
at  large  are  doing,  the  largest  possible  assistance  should  be  extended 
in  the  development  of  plans  for  securing  such  information  and  making 
it  generally  available  for  live-stock  producers. 

In  helping  to  solve  the  various  problems  arising  out  of  live-stock 
production,  large  use  of  economics  will  be  required.  Not  only  should 
the  most  thoro  research .  in  agricultural  economics  be  encouraged, 
but  also  it  is  particularly  important  that  agricultural  students  who 
are  to  be  the  leaders  in  agricultural  thought  in  the  state  should  be 
well  grounded  in  the  principles  of  economics.  We  must  learn  to  fit 
our  live-stock  operations  into  systems  of  farming  so  that  they  will 
utilize,  not  only  our  surplus,  but  also  the  by-product  feeds  of  the  farm, 
which  would  otherwise  ordinarily  go  to  waste.  We  must  not  allow 
our  live-stock  operations  permanently  to  take  out  of  the  cropping 
system  land  that  can  better  be  utilized  for  grain  production.  In 
other  words,  any  attempt  to  preserve  a  phase  of  agriculture  when  its 
preservation  is  uneconomic  is  a  short  sighted  policy  and  indefensible. 

In  our  zeal  to  make  the  greatest  possible  use  of  this  field  of 
study  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  sense  of  proportion  with  reference 
to  other  fields  of  study  should  be  lost.  The  question  resolves  itself 
rather  into  extending  our  lines  of  study,  and  to  utilizing  economics 
in  attempting  to  interpret  and  to  gain  a  better  understanding  of  the 
relation  of  the  various  phases  of  agriculture,  and  indeed  of  the  relation 
of  agriculture  to  other  industries. 

No  other  institution  is  in  as  strategic  a  position  to  give  proper 
direction  to  the  future  of  live  stock  in  Illinois  as  the  University  of 


OUTLOOK  FOR  LIVE  STOCK  135 

Illinois.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  teachings  of  the 
Agricultural  College,  the  agricultural  research  of  the  Experiment 
Station,  and  the  work  of  the  Extension  Service  should  all  materially 
contribute  to  the  proper  development  of  the  live-stock  industry,  and 
that  none  of  these  should  fall  into  the  very  natural  error  of  the 
specialist  of  viewing  agricultural  problems  primarily  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  development  of  special  phases  of  agricultural  produc- 
tion. In  determining  a  proper  agricultural  policy  for  the  state  of 
Illinois,  live-stock  production  should  occupy  an  important  place  because 
without  large  live-stock  holdings  it  is  impossible  to  secure  the  largest 
utilization  of  all  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  state. 


ROADSIDE  IMPROVEMENT 

W.  N.  RUDD,  Blue  Island 

T  IS  perhaps  hardly  twenty  years  ago  that  in  writing  a  paper 
on  this  subject  for  presentation  before  almost  any  audience 
in  our  state,  one  would  have  been  pessimistic  as  to  its 
reception,  almost  certain  that  it  would  not  be  considered 
worthy  of  serious  attention;  perhaps  well  enough  for  the 
women  to  talk  about,  along  with  their  posy  beds,  but 
nothing  for  a  hard-headed,  upstanding,  two-fisted  man  to  waste  time 
upon.  The  writer  would  have  felt  it  necessary  to  devote  half  his 
space  to  special  pleading,  in  a  timid  way,  for  a  hearing,  and  the 
balance  largely  to  showing  how  little  really  need  be  done  and  how 
very,  very  cheaply  improvements  could  be  made. 

Today,  there  is  not  one  person  present  here  who  does  not  realize 
fully  the  great  importance  of  banishing  from  our  homes,  and  from  the 
surroundings  among  which  we  do  our  work,  all  that  we  can  of  the 
ugly  and  unsightly;  and  of  bringing  in  all  that  may  be  possible  of 
the  sightly  and  the  beautiful — importance,  mind  you,  not  only  on  the 
esthetic  side  but  on  the  cold,  hard,  dollars  and  cents  side  also;  in 
the  proved  increase  in  our  property  values,  in  the  better  output  of  labor 
when  we  are  working  in  pleasant  surroundings,  in  the  greater  happi- 
ness which  will  keep  more  of  our  young  people  at  home,  and  in  the 
increased  traffic  attracted  by  beautiful  drives  and  the  increased  busi- 
ness which  it  brings  to  our  neighbors  who  are  makers  and  sellers  of 
things  needed  or  desirable.  We  can  approach  the  subject  confidently 
today,  as  one  of  accepted  importance,  without  necessity  of  excuse, 
apology,  or  special  pleading.  Our  problem  now  is  not  whether  to  do, 
but  what  to  do ;  and  how,  when,  and  where  to  do  it. 

It  is  stated  on  apparently  good  authority  that  there  are  96,000 
miles  of  public  highway  in  Illinois.  Those  who  are  so  minded  may 
find  interest  in  estimating  how  many  times  these  highways,  if  con- 
tinuous, would  go  around  the  earth's  circumference  and  how  many 
trees  it  would  take,  if  planted  fifty  feet  apart,  to  border  each  one  of 
them  on  both  sides.  Truly,  in  the  light  of  these  figures,  our  subject 
becomes  a  very  big  one  indeed.  We  have  no  need  to  be  discouraged 
at  the  magnitude  of  the  task,  however.  It  will  be  spread  over  many 
years  to  come,  and  we  and  our  children  and  our  children's  children  will 
all  be  working  at  it. 

The  work  divides  itself  naturally  into  two  lines:  first,  to  do 
away  with  the  ugly  or  unsightly,  so  far  as  we  can;  second,  to  add 

136 


ROADSIDE  IMPROVEMENT  137 

such  elements  of  beauty  as  are  found  desirable  and  feasible,  after 
a  careful  study  of  topographical,  climatic,  and  soil  conditions,  econom- 
ical first  cost  and,  especially,  cheapness  of  maintenance.  Above  all, 
we  must  ever  have  in  mind  that  a  road  is  built  for  a  very  real  and 
a  very  definite  purpose  of  use,  a  supremely  important  use;  and  we 
must  not  in  our  work  either  take  away  or  add  anything  which  will, 
in  any  serious  degree,  prevent  the  most  free  and  the  fullest  use  for 
which  the  road  was  built,  or  interfere  with  the  facilities  which  it  was 
intended  to  furnish. 

It  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  decorative  art,  perhaps  the 
fundamental  principle,  that  any  attempt  to  embellish,  or  to  orna- 
ment, or  to  beautify  a  thing  intended  for  use,  which  results  in  render- 
ing that  thing  less  useful  or  less  easily  used,  is  bad  art — always  and 
everywhere.  Confidentially,  and  "mentioning  no  names,"  the  appli- 
cation of  this  test  of  true  art  to  certain  buildings  in  a  certain  one 
of  the  world's  great  universities,  might  reveal  some  art  that  is — well ! 
not  good.  But  that's  another  story. 

The  first  line  of  work,  the  removal  of  unsightly  things,  is  easy 
to  carry  out.  The  greater  part  of  the  unsightly  things  are  left  or 
placed  in  the  highway  or  near  it  by  thoughtless  or  careless  persons. 
Persuasion  and  the  arousing  of  public  sentiment  will  secure  the 
removal  of  the  unnecessary  and  the  repair  of  the  dilapidated.  The 
expenditure  of  money  in  this  connection  will  rarely  be  needed. 

Perhaps  the  most  difficult  of  all  the  ugly  things  along  the  high- 
way, to  handle,  are  the  billboards  generally  erected  in  the  precise 
location  where  they  may  destroy  all  pleasure  in  the  finest  view,  or 
most  effectually  exasperate  the  lover  of  Nature's  beauties.  The 
National  Civic  Association  is  conducting  a  campaign  against  them, 
and  has  issued  bulletins  covering  the  matter  very  thoroughly ;  so  that 
nothing  need  be  said  at  this  time,  except  the  suggestion  that  a  drastic 
license  fee  might  be  imposed,  increasing  with  the  size  of  the  board, 
and  a  little  neighborly  remonstrance  exerted  with  the  owner  who 
allows  his  land  to  be  used,  or  his  buildings  to  be  defaced,  for  such 
purposes. 

The  growing  custom  of  erecting  advertising  signboards,  masquer- 
ading as  directing  or  distance  signs,  should  be  checked.  It  is  entirely 
within  the  powers  of  highway  officials  to  remove  them  and  to  prevent 
the  erection  of  others.  An  aroused  public  sentiment  is  the  remedy. 
The  rural  mail  box  is  a  necessity,  but  the  straggling  groups  of  them 


138  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

looking  like  groups  of  drunken  sailors  at  almost  every  junction  of 
our  country  roads  should  not  be  permitted.  The  highway  officers 
have  full  power  to  designate  places  for  them  and  to  require  their 
erection  and  maintenance  in  a  proper,  orderly,  and  sightly  way. 

The  nailing  of  signboards  and  political  and  other  notices  to  trees, 
telegraph  poles,  and  fence  posts  need  not  be  permitted.  Public  bulletin 
boards  of  unobtrusive  size  might  well  be  erected  at  selected  locations 
and  their  use  allowed  on  permits,  possibly  after  the  payment  of  small 
fees  sufficient  to  provide  for  their  erection  and  maintenance.  The 
many  other  small  nuisances  will,  in  most  cases,  each  suggest  an  obvious 
and  ready  way  for  its  abatement. 

The  lines  of  telegraph,  telephone,  and  electric  light  poles  are 
unsightly  things  which  we  cannot  at  present  do  away  with,  but  we 
can  at  least  require  their  being  maintained  in  a  neat  and  upright 
position  and  prevent  the  unsightly  bracing  we  so  often  see  applied 
to  weak  or  improperly  set  poles.  The  tree  mutilation  which  so  fre- 
quently accompanies  the  operation  of  such  lines  is  a  crime,  to  the  lover 
of  beautiful  trees.  The  courts  have  allowed  punitive  damages  to  the 
owners  of  adjoining  land  who  have  planted  the  trees,  in  such  cases; 
and  it  is  perfectly  feasible  for  public  officials  having  jurisdiction,  to 
prosecute  and  punish  such  offenses. 

In  one  Canadian  province,  at  least,  the  pole  nuisance  is  being 
minimized  by  increasing  the  width  of  main  highways  from  sixty-six 
to  eighty-six  feet,  placing  the  poles  outside  the  trees  in  the  added 
strip  of  ground,  thus  rendering  them  less  conspicuous  and  much 
less  likely  to  interfere  with  tree  growth.  Our  Illinois  country  is  much 
more  thickly  settled  and  our  farms  of  much  greater  value,  so  that, 
except  in  unusually  favorable  locations  and  for  short  distances,  it 
woftld  not  seem  feasible  to  adopt  this  desirable  practise  in  our  state. 
So  much  for  the  negative,  the  easy  and  the  obvious  part,  of  our 
great  task.  The  other  part,  the  constructive  part,  is  not  by  any  means 
so  simple  a  thing.  It  is  always  easier  to  tear  down  than  to  build, 
always  easier  to  take  a  blemish  out  of  a  picture  than  to  create  the 
picture. 

We  are  to  be  makers  of  beautiful  pictures  just  so  truly  as  the 
painter  who  works  with  his  oils  and  his  colors  on  the  flat  canvas. 
Our  colors  are  the  trees,  the  shrubs  and  the  flowers  which  we  use. 
The  painter's  colors  dry  to  their  final  hue  tomorrow,  or  next  week; 
ours,  not  for  a  generation  or  more.  The  little  saplings  which  we 
plant  today  will  not  fill  the  space  we  have  planned  for  them,  nor 
give  the  ultimate  effect  desired,  until,  perhaps,  after  we  are  dead  and 
forgotten.  We  seldom  see  the  finished  result  except  in  our  mind's 
eye.  We  shall  therefore  be  wise  if  in  doing  this  work  we  obtain  the 


ROADSIDE  IMPROVEMENT  139 

advice  of  those  who  by  long  study  and  varied  experience  can  direct 
with  a  sure  eye  and  a  competent  hand. 

Our  state,  as  you  know,  is  a  land  in  large  part  of  flat  level 
prairies  and  our  roads,  often  for  mile  after  long  mile,  run  straight- 
away without  turn  or  curve  and  without  appreciable  rise  or  fall. 
Our  present  accepted  hard  road  construction  is  an  eighteen-foot  streak 
of  gray  or  almost  white  concrete,  stretching  away  miles  beyond  all 
possible  range  of  vision;  mathematically  exact  at  its  edges,  never 
widening,  never  narrowing;  and  then  the  fences  equidistant  on  each 
side,  wire  and  posts,  wire  and  posts,  and  more  wire,  and  more  posts, 
posts  without  end ;  and  we  begin  to  understand  what  Kipling's  soldier 
felt  with  his 

Boots,  Boots,  Boots,  Boots, 
Slog,  slog,  slogging  up  and  down 

and  we  try  to  make  a  little  rhyme  to  match  it  beginning — 
Posts,  Posts,  Posts,  Posts, 

and  we  can't  do  it  because  rhyming  is  neither  our  trade  nor  our 
profession.  And  there  is  your  Illinois  road  for  many  miles,  in  many 
parts  of  the  state,  and  there  is  your  problem,  to  take  the  curse  off  of  it. 
It  is  a  most  difficult  one  to  solve;  but  we  can  be  thankful  that  few, 
in  fact  none,  of  the  others  are  so  difficult.  It  can  be  solved;  all 
problems  can  be  solved,  except,  possibly  what  to  do  with  our  telephone 
poles. 

The  person  who  has  given  little  study  to  the  question  will  be 
quite  apt  to  say,  with  conviction:  "The  whole  problem  is  a  simple 
one.  Plant  trees.  Plant  them  on  both  sides  of  the  road.  Plant  them 
by  the  thousand.  You  can't  have  too  many  trees.  What  is  more 
beautiful  than  a  fully  developed  maple  or  a  perfect,  mature  elm? 
What  greater  delight  than  to  drive  under  the  cool  shade  of  their 
over-arching  boughs,  sheltered  from  the  scorching  sun  of  a  July  day  ?" 
Ah!  But  after  July  and  August  come  September  and  October,  and 
the  winter  months  and  then  spring.  Only  a  small  part  of  our  days 
are  July  days.  We  must  have  variety.  We  must  have  delights  for 
all  days,  not  July  days  alone. 

I  can  conceive  of  nothing  more  monotonous  than  an  endless 
ribbon  of  gray  road  seen  through  a  never-ending  arch  of  green  boughs, 
except,  possibly,  the  same  road  without  any  trees  at  all.  No!  It 
would  be  deadly  monotony  and  our  traveler  would  again  be  at  his 
rhyme,  only  instead  of  posts,  it  would  be  Trees,  Trees,  Trees,  Trees. 
We  must  have  variety  and  change.  We  must  have  ever  new  and 
different  beauties.  We  must  not  shut  out  the  beautiful  distant  views. 


140  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

We  must  have  open  spaces  where  the  large  trees  give  way  to  masses 
of  shrubs  and  groups  of  the  smaller  native  trees  and  their  fall  coloring 
of  foliage  and  the  winter  berries  and  colored  bark.  There  must  be 
places  where  there  is  no  planting  at  all,  to  distract  the  eye  from  lovely 
distant  views.  There  will  be  a  few  groups  of  the  hardier  flowering 
plants  here  and  there  in  the  open ;  not  too  many,  because  their  lives 
are  short  and  their  upkeep  expensive.  There  will  be  many  noble 
avenues  of  trees,  and  let  us  hope  that  we  may  be  able  to  widen  the 
roadway  along  those  avenues.  There  will  be  isolated  specimen  trees. 
There  will  be  trees  planted  in  groups;  trees  in  rows  on  one  side  of 
the  road  only.  There  may  be  wooded  areas  adjoining  our  roadway 
which  can  be  acquired  cheaply  and  through  which  winding,  unpaved 
summer  drives  may  be  opened  to  tempt  the  traveler  off  the  beaten 
track.  There  may  be  adjacent  swampy  or  wet  areas  of  little  agri- 
cultural value  which  will  lend  themselves  finely  to  a  very  different 
style  of  planting.  Perhaps  we  may  find  cheap  areas  at  the  inter- 
sections of  roadways  where  planting  may  be  done  in  a  parklike  way 
and  thus  improve  two  roadways  with  one  planting  expense. 

We  have  thus  sketched  hurriedly  and  most  imperfectly  plans 
which  if  carried  out  in  spirit  would  make  the  highways  of  our  great 
state  an  inspiration  and  a  delight  to  all  people,  to  the  traveler  from 
other  sections,  to  the  busy  man  journeying  on  his  daily  affairs,  to 
the  children  on  their  walks  to  and  from  school,  and  to  the  whole 
family  on  its  way  to  church. 

Mention  of  our  schools  and  our  churches  brings  us  squarely  up 
against  the  fact  that  these  two  institutions,  alongside  our  roads,  are 
in  general  the  greatest  offenders  in  the  length  and  breadth  of  Illinois 
in  the  way  of  maintaining  unbeautiful  and  even  positively  ugly  con- 
ditions in  the  grounds  surrounding  the  buildings  which  they  occupy. 
The  old  Puritan  idea  that  religion  is  an  austere  and  an  unlovely  thing 
has  been  cast  aside  and  we  now  believe  that  religion  is  most  beautiful 
in  all  ways.  Why  then  should  we  not  surround  the  edifice  where  we 
go  to  practise  its  rites  with  all  the  beauty  that  we  can  reasonably 
give  it?  Why  should  not  every  schoolyard  be  planted  with  flowers 
and  flowering  shrubs  and  these  young,  plastic  minds  taught  to  love 
such  things,  and  how  to  cultivate  and  protect  them?  Why  should 
not  they  be  taught  to  protect  our  beautiful  wild  flowers ;  to  pick  them, 
when  really  desired,  carefully  and  with  moderation,  instead  of  ruth- 
lessly dragging  them  out  of  the  ground,  roots  and  all,  by  arms  full, 
to  be  carried  for  a  little  while  and  then  thrown  aside  Ithat  more  may 
be  pulled  up  and  destroyed? 


ROADSIDE  IMPROVEMENT  141 

i 

It  can  all  be  done  so  easily  and  so  cheaply,  although  we  may 
have  to  go  among  those  who  are  training  our  teachers  and  drive  out 
some  of  the  worship  of  teaching  methods  and  drive  in  a  little  more 
attention  to  what  to  teach.  We  can  well  do  with  a  little  less  of 
George  Washington,  and  Raphael,  and  Leonardo,  and  with  a  good 
deal  more  of  Daffodil,  and  Primrose,  and  Columbine. 

Granting  the  extreme  desirability,  the  almost  necessity,  of  the 
roadside  improvements  we  are  advocating,  the  question  then  comes, 
"What  of  the  cost?"  With  economical  and  careful  planning,  the 
ultimate  cost  can  be  made  astonishingly  low.  One  one-hundredth 
part  of  what  we  are  spending  for  hard  roads  would  enable  us  to 
accomplish  wonders  in  improving  those  same  roads;  and  the  work 
need  not  be  done  all  at  once,  but  could  be  spread  over  a  number  of 
years,  making  an  absurdly  small  annual  charge. 

The  elimination  part  of  our  programme  could  well  be  carried  out 
by  small  groups  of  people  working  in  their  home  localities.  The 
constructive  work  could  better  be  handled  by  larger  organizations, 
perhaps  county-wide.  The  work  on  the  state-maintained  roads 
might  well  be  centralized  in  a  group  closely  allied  to  and  functioning 
with  those  in  charge  of  the  maintenance  of  those  roads.  Friction 
and  overlapping  authority  could  thus  be  avoided,  and  greater  economy 
in  both  our  construction  and  maintenance  be  attained. 


THE  COUNTRY  HOME 

J.  V.  STEVENSON,  Streator 

HE  future  of  our  nation  depends  upon  the  kind  of  citizens 
that  we  produce.  In  turn,  what  our  citizens  are  depends 
very  largely  upon  the  homes  they  come  from,  so  I  take 
it  that  it  is  in  this  light  that  we  are  interested  in  discuss- 
ing the  country  home  today.  The  statement  has  been 
made  often,  and  needs  no  proof  here,  that  the  most  of  our 
leaders  in  thought  and  action  have  come  at  some  time  from  the  farm. 
This  has  been  true  all  through  our  history,  from  the  days  of  the  log 
cabin  country  home  down  to  the  present  time.  We  are  constantly 
drawing  on  our  rural  population  for  new  blood,  in  government,  in 
business,  in  all  the  professions.  And  it  is  this  steady  stream  of  new 
blood,  pure,  virile,  and  one  hundred  per  cent  American,  that  has 
enabled  us  to  forge  ahead  and  assume  the  lead  among  all  nations. 

CITIZENS  IN  THE  MAKING 

What  is  it,  then,  in  the  training  and  home  life  of  the  country 
bred  citizen  that  gives  him  this  virility  and  dependability  so  essential 
to  success?  We  might  mention  first  the  influence  of  pure  air,  pure 
food,  of  quiet  and  natural  surroundings  and  plenty  of  sleep.  These 
help  to  develop  our  country  children  into  better  "animals."  A  sound 
body  and  a  sound  mind  make  up  a  useful  combination.  Without 
either  a  person  is  out  of  balance  and  his  usefulness  is  impaired. 

Closely  related  to  this  matter  of  good  physical  development  is 
another  point  in  favor  of  the  man  or  woman  reared  in  the  country. 
Almost  from  the  time  the  child  is  able  to  walk  it  begins  to  learn 
something  about  work.  The  little  girl  four  years  old  can  help  her 
busy  mother  in  many  ways;  the  boy  of  the  same  age  loves  to 
follow  his  father  around  while  he  is  doing  the  chores.  And  he  too, 
very  early  finds  things  that  he  can  do  to  help,  and  ways  in  which 
he  can  save  his  father  a  good  many  steps.  While  the  little  tots  are 
thus  saving  their  parents  a  good  bit  of  energy,  the  effect  on  the  chil- 
dren is  of  vastly  greater  importance;  for  they  are  learning  to  work. 
They  are  learning  that  there  are  things  to  be  done  every  day  and  at 
certain  times  of  the  day,  and  that  if  these  things  are  not  done  at  the 
proper  time  more  or  less  serious  consequences  will  result. 

A  little  later  the  child  goes  to  school.  Before  and  after  school  the 
city  child  has  nothing  to  do  but  play.  The  father  is  busy  at  the  office 

142 


THE  COUNTRY  HOME  143 

or  the  store  or  the  factory.  The  mother  is  frequently  also  busy  at  the 
club  or  the  shops  or  the  matinee.  The  child  is  left  more  or  less  to  his 
own  devices,  and  he  plays  with  his  school  friends,  often  in  the  street 
or  alley,  having  no  other  place  to  play.  Here  schoolboy  "gangs"  are 
formed.  Here  he  learns  every  form  of  meanness  that  boys  know,  and 
very  frequently  right  here  is  planted  the  seed  that  later  develops  into 
the  hardened  criminal.  The  country  child,  on  the  other  hand,  has  his 
chores  to  do  both  morning  and  evening.  The  woodbox  must  be  rilled, 
the  chickens  fed,  the  eggs  gathered,  the  cows  milked.  Those  chores 
are  just  as  much  a  part  of  his  day's  routine  as  eating  his  three  meals 
or  going  to  bed  at  night.  So,  while  his  city  cousin  is  playing  with 
the  gang  in  the  street  or  going  to  a  movie  or  otherwise  offering  a 
fertile  field  for  Satan  who  "finds  mischief  for  idle  hands  to  do,"  the 
country  boy  is  keeping  his  hands  busy  doing  useful  work,  and  what 
is  more  important,  is  forming  the  habit  of  doing  things  on  time. 

Another  point  in  favor  of  the  country  child's  training  is  that  he 
knows  nature  and  learns  to  distinguish  between  the  fundamentals 
and  the  non-essentials  of  life.  To  him  clothes  are  incidental,  and 
the  tricks  of  so-called  polite  society  are  unknown.  But  he  knows  how 
things  grow,  and  he  knows  something  of  the  relative  value  of  the 
things  that  we  eat  and  wear  and  work  with.  The  city  boy  of  twelve 
probably  knows  the  latest  fashion  in  clothes,  the  latest  fad  in  haircuts 
and  the  newest  song  hit  on  the  street.  But  in  many  cases  he  does  not 
know  whether  potatoes  grow  on  trees  or  bushes,  whether  some  of  the 
cows  give  buttermilk  or  whether  we  "keep  a  bee"  to  furnish  the 
honey  for  our  table. 

THE  FARMER'S  LIFE  AN  OPEN  BOOK 

There  is  one  feature  of  the  farmer's  business  that  has  an  important 
effect  upon  his  home  life  and  his  moral  development.  In  his  business 
there  is  little  chance  for  concealment  or  deceit.  While  the  work  of 
others  may  be  surrounded  with  considerable  secrecy,  which  may  lead 
to  misrepresentation,  the  farmers'  business  is  always  open  to  inspec- 
tion. He  cannot  hide  his  fields  or  his  stock  from  his  neighbor's  eyes. 
So,  while  the  business  man  may  talk  in  terms  of  many  figures  and 
may  contrive  to  make  his  business  appear  much  more  important  than 
it  really  is,  it  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter  for  any  farmer  to  know 
in  a  general  way  what  his  neighbor  is  doing  in  any  of  his  productive 
enterprises.  When  a  man's  business  is  thus  open  and  above  board, 
it  is  reflected  in  the  character  of  his  home  life.  He  is  a  better  hus- 
band, a  better  parent,  a  better  citizen. 


144  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

And  this  leads  me  to  what  is  perhaps  the  most  important  factor 
in  this  development  of  citizenship  in  the  country  home.  It  is  the  sym- 
pathetic relationship  that  exists  in  the  farm  family.  Three  times  a 
day  the  whole  family  gather  at  the  table  for  meals.  All  of  them 
know  what  the  others  are  doing  and  they  are  interested  in  talking 
about  the  things  that  affect  the  whole  family.  In  the  evenings,  after 
the  work  is  done,  again  all  enjoy  this  companionship,  lying  on  the  grass 
in  the  yard  to  cool  off  on  summer  evenings,  or  sitting  by  the  fire  in 
winter  with  popcorn  and  apples  and  books  and  music. 

What  sort  of  place  is  this  country  home  that  offers  so  many 
advantages  for  the  training  of  citizens;  where  shall  we  find  it  and 
how  may  we  know  it  at  sight?  I  would  say  that  it  will  be  found 
surrounded  by  evidences  of  good  farming.  We  may  expect  to  find 
good  barns  and  outbuildings  of  all  kinds  kept  well  painted,  a  silo, 
good  herds  of  well-bred  live  stock  kept  in  by  good  fences,  land  well 
tilled  and  crops  well  diversified  and  with  evidence  of  a  careful  con- 
servation of  soil  fertility.  The  dwelling  will  be  of  permanent  con- 
struction, will  be  designed  to  harmonize  with  its  location,  and  will 
be  surrounded  by  a  grassy  lawn  with  enough  shade  trees  and  simple 
landscape  planting  to  make  a  good  play  ground  for  children  and  a 
pleasant  resting  place  for  grown  people.  Inside  the  house  we  may 
expect  to  find  modern  conveniences,  including  a  bathroom,  modern 
heating  system,  electric  lights,  mechanical  laundry  equipment,  com- 
fortable furniture,  a  piano  or  a  phonograph  or  both,  and  many  good 
books  and  current  magazines.  This  is  the  kind  of  country  home 
that  in  this  twentieth  century  will  induce  companionships  within  the 
family,  develop  in  children  a  love  of  farm  life,  bring  out  the  best 
there  is  in  them,  physically,  mentally  and  spiritually,  and  give  them 
a  memory  of  home  to  cherish  always. 

How  FAR  WE  ARE  FROM  THE  IDEAL 

I  wish  I  might  stop  here  and  say  that  I  have  described  the  ma- 
jority or  even  the  average  of  farm  homes  in  Illinois.  If  that  were 
true  we  need  have  no  concern  about  the  future  of  our  agriculture. 
Unfortunately  it  is  not  true,  for  so  far  in  our  development  we  have 
built  very  few  permanent  farm  homes.  The  great  majority  of  them 
have  been  merely  dwelling  houses  built  only  with  the  idea  of  furnish- 
ing the  lodging  facilities  necessary  to  carry  on  the  farm  business.  But 
the  time  is  coming,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  not  far  distant,  when 
we  shall  realize  that  the  farm  home  must  furnish  more  than  lodging. 
It  must  furnish  comforts  and  conveniences  that  will  make  country 


THE  COUNTRY  HOME  145 

life  satisfying  and  efficient.  There  are  many  farmers  in  Illinois 
today  who  can  build  such  homes  as  soon  as  they  make  up  their  minds 
that  they  want  them.  To  those  I  would  say  that  I  believe  there  is  no 
other  way  that  they  can  buy  as  much  satisfaction  with  their  money 
as  in  building  an  up-to-date,  permanent  farm  home.  There  are  very 
many  others  who  want  such  homes,  but  have  not  the  means  to  get 
them,  and  it  is  their  case  that  I  wish  to  present  in  this  paper. 

Take  first  the  case  of  the  tenant  farmer.  In  some  of  our  richest 
corn-belt  counties  seventy  per  cent  of  the  farms  are  operated  by 
tenants.  Now  there  are  some  tenant  farms  where  the  home  very 
closely  approaches  the  ideal,  but  they  are  rare.  In  the  majority  of 
cases  the  owner  is  interested  only  in  taking  as  much  as  he  can  from 
the  farm  every  year.  He  has  never  realized  or  considered  the  im- 
portance of  preserving  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  His  business  has  been 
to  mine  that  fertility  just  as  rapidly  as  possible.  Likely  he  lives  in  a 
distant  city,  perhaps  in  another  state.  Possibly  all  the  business  is 
handled  through  a  third  party  acting  as  agent.  In  any  case  there  is 
little  or  no  thought  given  to  the  matter  of  making  the  place  attractive 
or  homelike.  The  only  improvements  made  are  those  that  are  con- 
sidered necessary  to  make  the  farm  workable  and  to  insure  the  land- 
lord his  rent  from  year  to  year.  What  is  the  result  ?  A  farmstead 
consisting  of  a  little  cluster  of  cheaply  constructed  and  unattractive 
buildings,  set  very  likely  on  the  bleakest,  most  desolate  part  of  the 
farm,  with  very  few  trees  for  shade  and  comfort  and  no  grassy  lawn 
for  children  to  play  in.  No  good  live  stock;  because  the  landlord 
won't  build  barns  to  house  them,  and  won't  allow  land  sown  to  clover 
or  other  hay  or  pasture  crops  to  feed  them.  Constantly  diminishing 
yields,  because  the  landlord  can't  see  far  enough  ahead  to  provide  for 
maintaining  the  fertility  of  his  soil.  Can  you  imagine  children  grow- 
ing up  in  such  surroundings  with  the  desire  in  their  hearts  to  be 
farmers?  Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  flock  to  the  cities  as  soon  as 
they  are  free  to  shift  for  themselves? 

WHAT  is  THE  REMEDY? 

What  is  the  remedy?  A  step  in  the  right  direction  will  be  taken 
when  landlords  stop  renting  from  year  to  year  on  a  single  year  lease, 
and  adopt  the  long  term  lease,  making  provision  for  live  stock  and 
soil  fertility  requirements.  This  will  make  life  seem  more  worth 
while  to  the  tenants,  will  make  them  better  farmers,  better  home- 
makers,  better  citizens.  Some  landlords  argue  that  they  cannot  get 


146  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

tenants  to  whom  they  are  willing  to  rent  the  place  for  more  than  one 
year  at  a  time.  To  them  I  would  say  that  if  such  a  condition  exists, 
it  is  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  restricting  the  amount  of  land 
that  can  be  held  by  an  absentee  landlord.  There  has  been  considerable 
agitation  about  this  matter  and  much  argument  on  both  sides.  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  must  agree  that  better  homes  and  better  citizens 
are  the  rule  on  farms  operated  by  the  owners  than  on  farms  which  are 
part  of  large  holdings  belonging  to  absentee  landlords.  If  the  state 
is  interested  in  having  better  homes  and  better  citizens,  and  if  we 
agree  that  these  are  encouraged  by  the  pride  of  ownership,  certainly 
we  should  welcome  a  law  placing  a  reasonable  limitation  on  the 
amount  of  land  that  any  man  might  own  unless  he  worked  it  himself. 
But  merely  passing  such  a  law  will  not  get  us  very  far  in  the 
solution  of  this  problem.  We  must  provide  not  only  for  the  sale  of 
part  of  the  landlord's  holdings,  but  we  must  provide  also  for  their 
purchase  by  the  tenants.  And  this  is  by  no  means  easy  under  present 
conditions.  A  tenant,  or  any  one  who  desires  to  buy  a  farm,  may  do 
so  if  he  has  accumulated  approximately  half  the  price.  The  other 
half  can  be  borrowed  by  giving  a  mortgage  on  the  land  as  security. 
Under  the  old  system  of  borrowing  from  mortgage  brokers,  a  mort- 
gage on  a  farm  for  half  the  purchase  price  is  by  no  means  to  be  lightly 
considered  or  carelessly  contracted.  Such  loans  usually  run  for  five 
years.  Within  that  time  it  is  very  often  impossible  for  the  young 
farmer  to  pay  any  considerable  amount.  Then  th^re  is  hanging  over 
him  all  the  time  the  dread  of  this  mortgage,  the  knowledge  that  on  a 
certain  date  it  will  be  due,  and  the  fear  that  he  will  not  be  able  to 
renew  the  loan,  or  will  be  required  to  pay  a  generous  commission  to 
the  agent  who  handles  it.  Instances  are  known  where  the  commission 
charged  for  obtaining  a  loan  of  this  kind  was  equivalent  to  one  year's 
interest.  Hence  the  traditional  dread  of  mortgages,  and  the  plan 
followed  by  so  many  farmers  of  skimping  and  scraping  and  slaving 
during  the  best  part  of  their  lives,  and  sacrificing  education,  culture, 
physical  comfort  and  even  health,  in  order  to  get  out  of  debt.  We 
need  not  be  reminded  that  real  homes  cannot  be  developed  under  these 
conditions.  In  many  cases  these  farmers  and  their  wives  not  only 
spend  the  best  part  of  their  lives  trying  to  pull  out  of  debt,  but  they 
come  in  time  to  develop  a  habit  of  scraping  and  saving  to  pay  off 
mortgages,  a  habit  that  they  never  overcome.  They  start  out  to  pay 
off  on  their  farm  that  they  may  have  a  home  free  of  encumbrance. 
It  takes  all  they  can  save  to  do  the  trick.  There  is  nothing  left  for 
even  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life.  When  the  farm  is  finally  paid 


THE  COUNTRY  HOME  147 

for,  they  mortgage  it  again  to  buy  more  land  in  order  to  be  sure  to 
have  enough  for  a  "rainy  day."  And  early  training  has  instilled  in 
them  such  a  fear  of  mortgages  that  they  continue  to  deny  themselves 
the  comforts  of  life  until  they  are  all  paid  out.  Often  this  goes  on 
and  on  until  several  hundred  acres  of  land  have  been  acquired.  Then, 
realizing  that  they  are  growing  old,  they  decide  to  build  a  modern 
home  and  enjoy  life.  But  it  is  too  late.  The  early  habits  have  be- 
come fixed.  They  may  build  the  finest  house  in  the  community,  and 
surround  and  equip  it  with  all  the  conveniences  that  money  can  buy. 
But  they  cannot  be  happy  because  they  do  not  know  how  to  enjoy 
these  things.  All  their  lives  they  have  thought  of  nothing  but  saving 
money  and  in  so  doing  they  have  stunted  their  intellects  and  souls  so 
they  will  be  miserable  for  the  rest  of  their  days. 

OUR  LIMITED  CREDIT  FACILITIES 

The  Federal  Land  Bank  and  the  Joint  Stock  Land  Banks  go  part 
way  in  the  solution  of  this  problem.  They  loan  to  the  purchaser  of 
land  up  to  fifty  per  cent  of  its  value  in  most  parts  of  the  country. 
They  furnish  a  loan  that  never  comes  due.  By  means  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  amortization  the  borrower  makes  a  nominal  payment  every 
six  months  and  in  thirty-three  years'  time  both  principal  and  interest 
are  completely  paid.  The  old  dread  of  the  mortgage  becoming  due 
is  removed.  The  borrower  feels  better  able  to  invest  part  of  his 
income  each  year  in  things  that  will  make  his  farming  more  efficient 
and  his  life  more  satisfying.  Among  these  things  he  will  include  the 
improvement  of  his  home.  He  feels  free  to  give  a  little  time  and 
thought  to  reading,  music,  and  various  forms  of  culture  that  make 
him  a  better  home  man  and  a  better  citizen. 

But  what  about  the  young  couple  who  want  a  farm  home  and 
don't  have  the  fifty  per  cent  for  the  initial  payment?  The  Federal 
Land  Bank  cannot  help  them.  There  is  no  way  for  them  to  buy  a  farm 
unless  they  can  find  some  good  friend  who  is  financially  able  and 
willing  to  loan  them  the  other  half  of  the  price  either  on  their  per- 
sonal note  or  with  a  second  mortgage  as  security.  But  in  the  majority 
of  cases  such  a  friend  cannot  be  found.  What,  then  is  the  result? 
They  must  start  out  as  tenants,  probably  on  a  farm  that  they  can 
never  expect  to  own  or  to  make  their  permanent  home.  And  you  need 
not  be  told  that  it  is  a  long  and  hard  pull  for  them  to  get  enough 
money  ahead  to  make  the  initial  payment  on  a  farm.  Not  only  is 
it  a  long  and  hard  pull,  and  one  that  takes  the  best  part  of  their  lives 
in  doing,  but  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  it  is  work  done  on  a  farm 


148  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

that  they  can  never  expect  to  own,  and  is  accordingly  time  wasted  as 
far  as  building  a  real  home  is  concerned.  Surely  one  of  the  most 
urgent  matters  before  the  country  today  is  that  of  providing  some 
sort  of  credit  facilities  for  the  young  farmer  and  his  wife  starting  with- 
out capital  in  order  that  they  may  get  started  at  once  toward  making 
a  home  of  their  own. 

BETTER  CREDIT,  AND  THEN— 

But  again  we  must  realize  that  even  this  will  not  take  us  all  the 
way.  A  good  farmer  remarked  just  recently  that  to  be  able  to  bor- 
row money  is  important,  but  to  be  able  to  pay  it  back  is  more  im- 
portant. Certainly  we  need  better  credit  facilities  for  farmers,  but 
just  as  certainly  we  need  a  better  assurance  of  being  able  to  pay  out. 
For  pay  day  always  comes,  and  it  is  hard  to  see  how  the  farmer  can 
afford  to  pay  six  per  cent  interest  for  money  to  invest  in  a  business 
that  does  not  yield  that  much  in  returns.  And  we  must  face  the 
fact  that  even  with  pre-war  price  relations  reestablished,  the  average 
farmer  cannot  buy  corn-belt  land,  equip  and  farm  it,  and  make  six 
per  cent  on  his  investment  after  paying  wages,  taxes,  insurance,  upkeep, 
and  living  expenses,  not  to  mention  wages  for  the  work  done  by  his 
wife  and  family.  Now  if  it  is  going  to  be  necessary  for  the  farmer 
to  deny  himself  and  his  family  all  culture  and  even  the  ordinary  com- 
forts of  modern  life  to  make  both  ends  meet,  we  cannot  hope  to 
build  a  very  great  number  of  permanent  homes  in  the  country,  and 
we  cannot  expect  to  keep  our  best  young  men  and  women  on  the  farm. 
If  it  is  worth  while  to  give  a  college  education  in  agriculture,  that 
education  should  fit  the  student  for  life  on  the  farm.  For  not  all  of 
our  graduates  can  spend  their  lives  in  research  or  teaching  or  exten- 
sion work.  And  in  just  so  far  as  the  products  of  our  agricultural 
college  will  go  back  to  the  farm  to  put  in  practise  the  principles  they 
have  learned  here,  in  just  that  measure  will  the  influence  of  the 
college  grow  and  strengthen  our  commonwealth. 

But  it  is  commonly  said  that  a  college  education  trains  the  boy 
or  girl  away  from  the  farm.  And  in  a  measure  this  is  true.  Four 
years  here  at  college  have  accustomed  them  to  conveniences  and  com- 
forts that  they  have  never  had  on  the  farm.  Not  fine  clothes  and 
elaborate  furniture  and  gay  society,  but  things  that  are  coming  more 
and  more  to  be  regarded  as  necessities  of  life.  Running  water,  good 
lights,  mechanical  laundry  and  cleaning  equipment,  music  and  books 
and,  what  is  just  as  important,  a  little  time  to  enjoy  them;  a  home 
and  farmstead  built  to  harmonize  with  its  surroundings  and  furnish 


THE  COUNTRY  HOME  149 

an  attractive  place  to  live,  these  are  the  things  that  are  more  and 
more  going  to  be  demanded  of  the  farm  home.  And  no  matter  what 
other  advantages  farm  life  may  afford,  we  cannot  hope  to  see  our 
best  young  men  and  women  stay  on  the  farm  if  they  are  denied  these 
comforts.  Just  recently,  I  heard  an  old  farmer  who  has  spent  all  his 
life  in  hard  work  and  who  has  never  had  the  advantage  of  higher 
education  or  modern  culture,  say  that  he  thought  often  when  a  farmer 
comes  in  hot  and  dusty  from  a  hard  day's  work  a  good  shower  bath 
would  do  him  more  good  than  his  supper.  "And  yet,"  he  said,  "the 
farmer  is  in  the  most  part  denied  this  comfort  which  is  commonly 
available  to  the  factory  workers  in  our  cities."  Now  we  agree,  and 
others  are  coming  to  realize,  that  farming  is  the  biggest  business  in  the 
nation  today.  Such  a  business  demands  that  a  great  many  of  our 
best  young  men  and  women  stay  on  the  farm.  Let  me  repeat  that  not 
many  of  them  are  going  to  be  willing  to  stay  there  if  they  must  deny 
themselves  the  common  comforts  and  conveniences  of  daily  life  that 
are  enjoyed  by  the  average  resident  of  our  cities.  Surely  we  must 
have  in  the  country  more  real  homes,  homes  that  are  not  merely 
dwelling  houses  but  homes  that  provide  the  advantages  that  will  make 
country  life  attractive  and  will  give  to  our  future  citizenship  the 
greatest  possible  development. 

THE  LORD  HELPS  THEM  THAT  HELP  THEMSELVES 

How  is  this  to  be  brought  about  ?  I  should  say  by  the  farmers 
themselves.  The  main  thing  needed  is  to  make  farm  business  more 
profitable,  to  make  farm  returns  somewhat  comparable  to  the  returns 
of  other  industries  that  require  a  similar  investment  and  corresponding 
ability.  Before  we  can  build  many  permanent  country  homes,  our 
farm  business  must  be  made  to  pay  a  fair  rate  of  interest  on  the 
necessary  money  and  time  and  ability  invested.  This  cannot  be 
brought  about  by  any  special  governmental  concession  or  guarantee, 
but  a  great  deal  can  be  accomplished  by  the  farmers  themselves. 

Much  can  be  done  in  this  direction  by  the  use  of  better  systems 
of  farming,  systems  that  will  enable  the  farmer  to  produce  more 
efficiently  and  at  lower  cost.  This  is  a  matter  of  education  and  I 
believe  our  research  and  extension  activities  should  continue  and  be 
further  developed  along  this  line. 

But  better  farming  cannot  do  it  all.  We  must  realize  more 
and  more  that  our  business  does  not  stop  with  production.  We  must 
pay  more  and  more  attention  to  the  economical  marketing  of  our 
products  till  they  reach  the  consumer's  hands,  in  order  that  we,  as 


150  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

well  as  the  consumer,  may  benefit  by  more  efficient  methods.  This  is 
a  job  that  no  farmer  can  do  individually,  but  we  are  just  beginning  to 
learn  that  we  can  do  it  by  organization.  Not  only  through  cooperative 
marketing  can  organization  help  us  to  a  better  return  for  our  invest- 
ment, but  through  organization  and  in  that  way  alone,  can  we  bring 
our  case  to  the  attention  of  the  general  public.  Through  organiza- 
tion farmers  can  meet  around  the  council  table  or  in  legislative  hall 
on  equal  basis  with  capital  and  labor,  and  thresh  out  such  questions 
as  taxation,  transportation,  and  finance,  that  are  vitally  connected  with 
the  matter  of  income. 

Now  these  cooperative  organizations  in  order  to  be  successful 
must  have  the  right  kind  of  leaders.  These  leaders  must  have  a 
technical  knowledge  of  agriculture.  They  must  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  principles  and  methods  of  cooperation  as  they  have  been  worked 
out  through  experience  in  this  and  other  countries.  And  they  must 
be  instilled  with  the  idea  of  giving  service  to  their  communities.  I 
believe  the  University  should  give  attention  to  the  special  training 
of  men  to  be  leaders  in  these  cooperative  organizations.  The  state- 
ment may  seem  far-fetched,  but  I  believe  it  is  true,  that  one  of  the 
greatest  contributions  the  University  can  make  to  the  development 
of  the  country  home  is  the  training  of  the  men  to  be  leaders  of 
farmers'  cooperative  movements. 

In  closing  let  me  repeat  that  we  can  hope  for  better  country 
homes  only  when  the  business  of  farming  becomes 'more  profitable. 
The  farmer  has  it  in  his  own  power  to  bring  this  about,  first  by  his 
individual  effort  to  produce  more  efficiently,  and  secondly  by  his 
organized  effort  to  market  more  efficiently  and  use  his  influence 
toward  a  fair  solution  of  our  state  and  national  problems.  I  have 
said  that  these  farmers'  organizations  must  have  wise  and  well-trained 
leaders.  Their  success  will  depend  ultimately,  however,  upon  personal 
interest  and  activity  of  the  individual  farmer.  If,  through  lack  of 
interest,  he  allows  his  organization  to  be  controlled  by  a  few  men 
with  selfish  personal  ambitions,  or  allows  it  to  degenerate  into  a 
paternalistic  scheme  supported  by  government  funds,  it  will  fail.  In 
my  humble  opinion  nothing  in  recent  years,  if  indeed  in  our  whole 
history,  has  dignified  agriculture  as  an  occupation  so  much  as  the 
growth  and  work  of  our  farm  bureau  organizations.  And  this  is  true 
because  the  organizations  were  built  by  the  farmers  themselves. 
Therein  lies  the  hope  that  we  shall  eventually  solve  our  problems  as 
they  come  to  us,  including  the  problem  of  the  country  home. 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  BASES  OF  CROP 
PRODUCTION 

W.  L.  BURLISON,  Professor  of  Crop  Production 

HROUGHOUT  all  ages  the  growth  of  plants  has  inter- 
ested thoughtful  men."  "The  beginning  of  plant  culture 
goes  far  back  into  history."  "The  mystery  of  the  change 
of  an  apparently  lifeless  seed  to  a  vigorous  growing  plant 
never  loses  its  freshness."  And  it  is  evident,  too,  that  as 
time  goes  on  and  the  world's  food  problem  becomes  more 
complex,  this  interest  will  steadily  develop. 

A  review  of  some  of  the  world's  literature  relating  to  agriculture 
reveals  many  interesting  statements.  It  was  thought  by  some  gar- 
deners that  the  moon  exercised  a  controlling  influence  on  the  growth 
of  plants.  Others  thought  that  the  ruling  force  was  an  unknown 
God  whose  power  never  could  be  known.  Before  the  advent  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  speculation  and  superstition  ruled  supreme.  Since 
about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  plant  culture  studies  have 
passed  through  certain  rather  well  defined  epochs,  each  in  turn  con- 
tributing valuable  information  and  thus  enlarging  and  enriching  our 
knowledge  of  how  plants  grow. 

THE  SEARCH  FOR  THE  "PRINCIPLE  OF  VEGETATION"* 

Almost  five  centuries  ago,  Palissy  said:  "You  will  admit  that 
when  you  bring  dung  into  the  field  it  is  to  return  to  the  soil  some- 
thing that  has  been  taken  away.  When  a  plant  is  burned  it  is  reduced 
to  a  salty  ash  called  Alcaly,  by  apothecaries  and  philosophers — every 
sort  of  plant,  without  exception,  contains  some  kind  of  salt.  Have 
you  not  seen  certain  labourers  when  sowing  a  field  with  wheat  for  the 
second  year  in  succession,  burn  the  unused  wheat  straw  which  had 
been  taken  from  the  field.  In  the  ashes  will  be  found  the  salt  that 
the  straw  took  out  of  the  soil ;  if  this  is  put  back,  the  soil  is  improved. 
Being  burned  on  the  ground  it  serves  as  manure  because  it  returns 
to  the  soil  those  substances  which  had  been  taken  away."  These 
facts  have  been  confirmed  in  part  from  the  study  of  chemistry. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  a  search  for  the  "principle  of  veg- 
etation" was  begun  by  Von  Helmont.  His  work  is  regarded  as  the 
classic  of  its  time.  In  speaking  of  his  experiment,  Von  Helmont  says : 
"I  took  an  earthen  vessel  in  which  I  put  two  hundred  pounds  of  soil, 


*Russell's  Soil  Conditions  and  Plant  Growth. 

151 


152  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

dried  in  an  oven,  then  I  moistened  with  rain  water  and  pressed  hard 
into  it  a  shoot  of  willow  weighing  five  pounds.  After  exactly  five 
years,  the  tree  that  had  grown  up  weighed  169  pounds  and  about 
three  ounces.  But  the  vessel  had  never  received  anything  but  rain 
water  or  distilled  water  to  moisten  the  soil,  when  this  was  necessary, 
and  it  remained  full  of  soil  which  was  still  tightly  packed,  and  lest 
any  dust  from  outside  should  get  into  the  soil,  it  was  covered  with  a 
sheet  of  iron  coated  with  tin,  but  perforated  with  many  holes.  I  did 
not  take  the  weight  of  the  leaves  that  fell  in  the  autumn.  In  the  end 
I  dried  the  soil  once  more  and  got  the  same  two  hundred  pounds  that 
I  started  with,  less  about  two  ounces.  Therefore,  the  164  pounds  of 
wood,  bark  and  root,  arose  from  the  water  alone."  A  notable  con- 
tribution, but  only  a  part  of  the  truth  was  found. 

Glauber  believed  that  "saltpeter"  contained  these  important 
"principles."  Kulbel  was  convinced  of  their  presence  in  "humus." 
Along  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Tull  wrote  interest- 
ingly of  how  plants  feed.  "It  is  agreed,"  he  wrote,  "that  all  the  fol- 
lowing materials  contribute  in  some  manner  to  the  increase  of  plants, 
but  it  is  disputed  which  of  them  is  that  very  increase  of  food :  ( 1 ) 
Niter,  (2)  Water,  (3)  Air,  (4)  Fire,  (5)  Earth."  "Altho  niter, 
water,  air,  and  fire  and  heat  aid  plants  in  growing,  the  earth  is  the 
real  food  and  increase  of  plants;  niter  and  other  salts  prepare  the 
earth  by  dividing  its  particles,  as  a  knife  is  to  cut  and  prepare  the 
food ;  water  and  air  move  it,  and  by  carrying  and  fermenting  it  in  the 
juices  of  the  plant  to  produce  heat.  Too  much  niter  corrodes  a  plant, 
too  much  water  drowns  it,  too  much  air  dries  the  roots,  too  much 
heat  burns  it;  but  too  much  earth  a  plant  can  never  have,  unless  it 
be  therein  wholly  covered  up."  Tull's  work  closes  the  period  known 
as  the  epoch  of  a  search  for  the  "principle  of  vegetation." 

EARLY  EFFORTS  TO  ASCERTAIN  "PLANT  NUTRIENTS" 

According  to  Russel,  the  year  1750  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
epoch  regarded  as  a  search  for  "plant  nutrients."  It  was  about  1755 
when  Home  was  set  to  work  by  the  Edinburg  Society  "to  try  how 
far  chemistry  will  go  in  settling  the  principles  of  agriculture."  Home 
seemed  to  think  that  the  whole  art  of  agriculture  centered  in  the 
"nourishing  of  plants."  His  chief  contribution  to  plant  culture  was 
the  emphasis  he  placed  on  a  study  of  the  function  of  "plant  nutrients." 

Priestley,  in  1771,  pointed  to  the  fact  "that  plants  instead  of  af- 
fecting the  air  in  the  same  manner  as  animal  respiration,  reverse  the 
effects  of  breathing  and  tend  to  keep  the  atmosphere  pure  and  whole- 


CROP  PRODUCTION  153 

some,  when  it  is  become  noxious  in  consequence  of  animals  either  liv- 
ing, or  breathing,  or  dying,  and  putrefying  in  it."  Upon  the  observa- 
tions just  cited,  coupled  with  Priestley's  discovery  of  oxygen,  is  based 
one  of  the  most  important  principles  of  plant  physiology. 

Up  to  about  1800,  studies  were  largely  of  a  qualitative  nature, 
but  the  work  of  DeSaussure  on  quantitative  gaseous  exchange  in 
plants  laid  the  foundation  for  work  now  included  in  the  modern 
period  of  plant  investigations.  DeSaussure,  however,  viewed  his  studies 
largely  from  the  chemical  aspect. 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  Liebig  referred  to  the  work  up 
to  his  time  as  being  of  a  nature  "fitted  only  to  awake  pity."  Liebig 
announced  that  "the  crops  on  a  field  diminish  or  increase  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  diminution  or  increase  of  the  substances  conveyed  to  it 
in  manure."  The  fundamental  truths  that  he  contributed  marked  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era  and  he  prepared  the  world  for  the  splendid 
progress  that  followed. 

About  the  time  Liebig  was  startling  the  world  with  his  theories, 
was  born  Von  Sachs,  who  was  later  to  be  known  as  favorably  in  the 
field  of  botany  as  was  Liebig  in  the  science  of  chemistry.  In  April, 
1859,  Sachs  was  called  by  Professor  Stockhardt  to  the  Experiment  Sta- 
tion at  Tharand  to  perfect  and  extend  his  researches  on  the  water 
(nutrient  solution)  method,  and  to  direct  the  work  of  the  Experiment 
Station  along  lines  of  experimental  plant  physiology.  Later  at  the 
Agricultural  Academy  at  Bonn,  Poppelsdorf,  he  gave  us  the  now 
classic  contributions  on  germination,  material  transportation,  and 
translocation ;  and  thus  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foundations  for  an  ex- 
perimental study  of  plant  nutrition.  His  chief  interest  in  botany 
seemed  to  be  in  its  application  to  agriculture.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  botany  and  agriculture  alike  failed  to  follow  his  leadership  in  the 
application  of  plant  physiology  to  agriculture.  The  intimate  and 
definite  relation  between  the  two  fields  so  well  recognized  by  Stock- 
hardt and  so  masterfully  developed  by  Sachs  was  all  but  broken  with 
the  latter's  passing.  A  field  so  auspiciously  developed  has  been  allowed 
to  lie  fallow  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

THE  NEED  FOR  BOTANY  IN  A  STUDY  OF  CROP  PROBLEMS 

Just  why  botanists  of  the  immediate  past  have  overlooked  such  an 
opportunity  for  service  is  not  clear.  "What  is  the  matter  with 
botany?"  is  a  favorite  question  nowadays.  Piper  suggests  that  "in- 
tellectual isolation"  is  one  cause  of  this  indifference.  Probably  "pro- 
vincialism" is  at  the  foundation  of  certain  troubles.  One  writer  be- 


154  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

lieves  that  a  "feeling  of  superiority"  is  a  contributing  factor  to  such  a 
certain  lack  of  interest  in  crops  problems  on  the  part  of  some  botanists. 
Perhaps  it  is  not  impertinent  to  ask  the  question,  "What  is  the  matter 
with  agronomists  specializing  in  crop  production?"  If  the  botanists 
are  somewhat  at  fault,  so  are  the  agronomists.  Good  botanical  train- 
ing has  been  available  to  them,  but  few  have  sought  such  equipment 
as  botany  can  give.  It  must  be  admitted  that  both  groups  are  at  fault, 
and  as  a  result,  fundamental  investigations  in  crops  are  few  and  are 
progressing  slowly.  We  are  almost  at  a  standstill.  We  seem  to  be 
yet  in  the  variety  testing  stage — in  the  "cut  and  try"  epoch. 

The  contributions  of  chemistry  have  been  so  numerous  and  im- 
portant that  this  has  been  referred  to  as  the  chemical  age.  The  ap- 
plications furnished  agriculture  are  fundamentally  important  and  are 
recognized  as  such,  but  we  believe  chemistry  cannot  solve  our  crop 
production  problems  unaided.  It  appears  now  that  a  newer  plant 
physiology,  quantitative  in  nature,  is  destined  to  enter  the  field  of 
action  along  with  chemistry,  and  from  this  combination  much  is  to  be 
expected. 

In  Illinois  live  two  corn  breeders  of  national  reputation.  I 
might,  without  the  feeling  of  contradiction,  say  international  reputa- 
tion. Only  a  fortnight  ago,  the  older  of  them  was  heard  to  say,  "I 
have  studied  corn  breeding  for  thirty  years  and  I  am  only  in  the 
A-B-C  class."  The  other  has  remarked  that  "after  nine  years  of  pa- 
tient endeavor,  I  have  little  to  say  because  my  results  seem  to  be  so 
difficult  of  interpretation."  These  statements  lead  us  to  the  firm 
belief  that  the  trouble  lies  in  the  fact  that  our  botanical  truths  are 
not  sufficient  to  furnish  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  breeding  op- 
erations. 

If  agronomy  is  to  occupy  the  important  station  is  should,  it  must 
ally  itself  to  the  science  that  is  basic  in  the  interpretation  of  plant 
function;  namely,  plant  physiology.  By  establishing  the  closest  re- 
lationship among  the  intricate  and  basic  problems  concerning  the  in- 
fluence of  the  agricultural  environment  on  plant  functions,  and 
through  these  on  crop  production,  much  will  be  accomplished. 

WHAT  ARE  SOME  OF  THE  BASIC  PROBLEMS  OF  CROP  PRODUCTION  ? 

So  far  as  crop  production  is  concerned,  what  are  some  of  its  basic 
problems?  What  contributions  can  plant  physiology  make? 

Before  attempting  to  answer  these  questions,  it  will  be  well  to 
study  briefly  the  general  agricultural  features  of  our  state.  From 
north  to  south,  the  length  of  the  state  is  385  miles,  which  means,  of 


CROP  PRODUCTION  155 

course,  great  variation  in  the  climate  of  the  respective  sections. 
Northern  Illinois  receives  an  annual  rainfall  of  less  than  thirty-five 
inches,  while  the  southern  third  of  the  state  receives  from  forty  to 
fifty  inches.  Temperature  variations  for  these  areas  are  even  more 
striking  than  rainfall  differences,  and  result  in  a  marked  change  in 
the  length  of  the  crop-growing  seasons.  At  Fairfield  corn  may  be 
planted  during  the  last  days  of  April,  while  at  DeKalb,  May  18  is 
the  earliest  date  at  which  it  can  safely  be  planted. 

The  soil  survey,  which  is  more  than  three-fourths  completed, 
shows  how  great  a  variation  we  have  in  our  soil  types.  To  date, 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  types  have  been  recorded.  Such 
extremes  of  soil  type  indicate  clearly  the  complex  nature  of  the  crop- 
production  problem  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  With  such  great 
variation  in  soil  type  and  climate  as  we  have  in  Illinois,  is  it  any 
wonder  that  a  man  who  is  a  successful  farmer  in  southern  Illinois 
might  be  a  failure  in  northern  Illinois? 

A  satisfactory  solution  of  crop-production  studies  in  Illinois  must 
be  founded  on  a  full  knowledge  of  the  soil  and  what  is  taking  place  in 
it,  as  well  as  a  complete  understanding  of  the  influence  of  climate  and 
the  inter-relationship  of  these  great  factors  as  they  affect  plant  growth. 
Much  has  been  done  looking  toward  a  proper  solution  of  the  soil  prob- 
lem, tho  many  vital  questions  remain  unsolved.  It  will  be  some  time 
before  plant  studies  have  overtaken  soil  investigations,  because  the 
former  field  remains  largely  untouched. 

Again,  what  are  the  outstanding  problems  which  should  be 
attacked  first?  It  seems  to  me  that  the  fundamental  crop  problem 
is  "adaptation."  If  this  is  granted,  what  is  the  method  of  attack? 
We  believe  the  approach  must  be  made  through  a  study  of  plant 
physiology.  "The  aim  of  plant  physiology"  as  stated  by  the  great 
botanist  Palladin,  "is  to  gain  a  complete  and  thoro  knowledge  of  all 
the  phenomena  occurring  in  plants,  to  analyze  the  complex  life  pro- 
cesses so  as  to  interpret  them  in  terms  of  simple  ones  and  to  reduce 
them  finally  to  principles  of  physics  and  chemistry." 

Little  is  now  known  of  the  sensitive  or  critical  period  in  crop 
plants  in  relation  to  environmental  factors  such  as  moisture,  tempera- 
ture, and  light,  as  viewed  from  the  physiological  aspect,  more  partic- 
ularly in  its  application  to  field  conditions.  The  basis  of  attack,  then, 
must  be  the  study  of  the  relationship  of  environmental  factors  to  the 
various  life  stages  of  crop  plants.  These  life  stages  or  physiologic 
phases  may  be  grouped  as  follows :  ( 1 )  the  seed  stage ;  (2)  the  germ- 


156  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

inative  stage ;  (3 )  the  plantlet  stage ;  (4)  the  active  growth  or  vegeta- 
tive stage ;  ( 5 )  the  reproductive  stage. 

A  thoro  knowledge  of  the  physiological  behavior  of  farm  crops 
must  include  a  knowledge  of  the  life  stages,  each  in  relation  to  the 
several  factors  of  environment.  When  we  have  such  information  it 
is  not  difficult  to  determine  the  critical  phase  or  period.  We  are  con- 
vinced that  a  clear  understanding  of  the  critical  period  is  necessary  be- 
fore we  can  proceed  far  in  crop-adaptation  studies. 

A  few  typical  questions  will  add  emphasis  to  the  suggestion  made 
above.  These  questions  are  not  made-up  questions;  they  actually 
have  been  asked  by  Illinois  farmers  during  the  last  twelve  months: 

1.  One   variety   of   wheat,   corn   or   oats   is   better   than   an- 
other, Why? 

2.  If  this  variety  lodges  worse  than  another,  Why? 

3.  If  early  seeding  of  spring  wheat  is  best,  Why? 

4.  This  year  we  have  scab,  next  year  none,  Why? 

5.  Wheat  winterkills,  Why? 

6.  Soft  wheat  for  southern  Illinois,  Why? 

7.  Bearded  wheat  for  northern  Illinois  and  smooth  for  south- 
ern, Why? 

8.  Today  I  plant  corn,  tomorrow  I  plant  from  the  same  bag, 
and  from  today's  planting  I  get  a  stand,  from  tomorrow's  planting  a 
poor  stand  of  puny  corn,  Why? 

Truly  a  new  day  is  dawning  in  Illinois  agriculture.  The  man  on 
the  land  is  once  again  facing  the  east,  with  always  in  the  forefront  the 
eternal  question,  Why?  It  seems  clear  that  the  agronomist  has  come 
to  realize  his  position  and  he  now  resolutely  acknowledges  the  basic 
question,  Why? 

WHAT  Is  BEING  DONE  TOWARD  SOLVING  THESE  PROBLEMS? 

If  there  is  a  new  day  in  plant  agriculture  in  Illinois,  the  question 
arises  in  your  mind,  what  is  being  done  looking  to  the  solution  of 
these  important  questions,  and  we  feel  that  it  is  only  fair  that  some 
notion  be  given  as  to  what  progress  is  being  made. 

Last  September,  Dr.  Charles  F.  Hottes,  who  is  recognized  as  a 
master  in  his  field,  consented  to  become  consulting  physiologist  to  the 
Department  of  Agronomy.  In  his  laboratory,  without  doubt  one  of 
the  best  in  the  country,  tho  needing  much  additional  equipment,  the 
investigations  of  several  basic  problems  are  under  way;  and  it  should 
be  added  that  these  same  problems  are  being  studied  simultaneously 
on  the  crop  experiment  fields. 


CROP  PRODUCTION  157 

Illinois  is  one  of  the  two  leading  corn-producing  states  of  the 
world,  with  an  annual  total  yield  of  more  than  355,000,000  bushels. 
Since  corn  is  our  great  staple,  it  is  natural  that  our  most  extensive 
studies  should  center  in  its  physiological  behavior.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  there  has  been  little  investigational  work  on  corn  to  determine 
the  normal  requirements  of  the  crop.  It  is  doubtful  if  we  can  find 
data  which  show  the  best  temperature  for  the  germination  test  of  corn. 
Seed  corn  should  always  be  germinated  before  being  planted  in  the 
field.  What  is  the  most  desirable  temperature  for  this  operation? 
Should  the  temperature  be  75°  or  85°,  and  what  influence  will  the 
temperature  relationships  have  on  the  accuracy  of  the  results?  Certain 
we  are  of  the  fact  that  very  little  is  known  of  the  temperature  re- 
quirements of  the  plant  in  its  several  life  stages.  Through  the  whole 
literature  on  corn,  you  may  search  for  this  kind  of  information,  with 
little  or  no  success. 

Just  as  the  physician  understands  the  human  body,  so  must  the 
agronomist  understand  the  plant  body.  If  we  are  to  understand  the 
abnormal,  or  the  plant  in  sickness,  so  must  we  understand  the  healthy 
or  normal,  because  it  is  on  the  normal  behavior  that  our  recommenda- 
tions for  management  are  based. 

Much  has  been  written  about  the  selection  and  storage  of  seed 
corn,  but  we  find  nowhere  in  literature  data  on  which  to  make  a  safe 
recommendation.  At  what  temperature  should  seed  corn  be  stored 
for  the  maintenance  of  maximum  germination  and  vigor?  When 
seed  corn  is  brought  in  from  the  field,  how  rapidly  should  it  be  dried 
and  at  what  temperature?  What  temperature  and  moisture  content 
should  be  maintained  throughout  the  winter  months?  A  line  of 
work  now  under  way  shows  clearly  that  there  is  danger  of  reducing 
too  much  the  moisture  content  of  seed  corn.  Corn  dried  to  six  per 
cent  moisture  previous  to  storage  was  slower  in  absorbing  water  and 
more  tardy  in  germination  than  similar  corn  stored  when  it  contained 
twice  the  quantity  of  water.  The  total  percentage  germination  was 
lower  and  the  vigor  of  the  young  plants  was  slightly  less  in  the  low- 
moisture  corn.  On  the  other  hand,  another  lot  of  the  same  corn 
which  contained  nineteen  per  cent  water  when  it  was  stored  did  not 
do  so  well  as  the  dry  corn,  even  tho  the  processes  of  germination  were 
more  rapid.  This  indicates  that  the  proper  quantity  of  moisture  for 
retaining  vigor  of  seed  corn  in  storage  is  nearer  twelve  per  cent  than 
either  six  or  nineteen.  In  other  words,  the  best  quantity  of  water 
in  corn  to  permit  the  proper  amount  of  physiological  activity  in  the 
seed  to  insure  the  nourishment  of  the  young  plantlet  and  keep  it  at 
its  best,  is  about  twelve  per  cent. 


158  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

What  is  the  best  moisture  content  for  corn  at  planting?  More 
than  a  year  ago,  Mr.  Frank  I.  Mann  raised  the  last  question  and  sug- 
gested its  importance.  No  doubt  his  experience  has  taught  him  that 
corn  plants  which  begin  their  growth  under  most  favorable  conditions 
are  ordinarily  superior  to  those  from  the  same  kind  of  seed,  but  germi- 
nating and  making  their  initial  growth  under  less  favorable  conditions. 
Preliminary  studies  indicate  that  soaking  seed  corn  in  water  previous 
to  planting  is  a  method  of  hastening  germination,  thereby  giving  the 
plant  an  earlier  start  than  otherwise  would  be  the  case.  This  pre- 
liminary soaking  has  resulted  in  an  increase  in  the  yield  where  the 
crop  was  planted  late.  However,  the  length  of  time  the  kernels  are 
soaked  determine  whether  the  result  will  be  an  increase  or  a  decrease 
in  production.  Soaking  for  periods  less  than  twenty-four  hours  is 
favorable  to  growth,  whereas,  soaking  for  a  longer  time  either  is  not 
beneficial  or  is  detrimental.  In  addition  to  duration  of  soaking,  there 
are  some  indications  that  the  benefit  to  be  derived  from  this  practise 
is  vitally  dependent  upon  the  time  of  planting  and  the  moisture  of  the 
soil  when  the  planting  is  done.  These  are  typical  of  the  problems  now 
in  progress  dealing  with  the  seed  stage  of  the  corn  plant. 

A  sister  institution  states  that  corn  for  seed  may  be  gathered  in 
the  milk.  Seed  thus  selected  will  germinate,  but  it  is  an  easy  prey  for 
fungi,  and  in  most  instances  the  plants  would  never  appear  above 
ground.  It  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  thoroly  mature  corn 
is  best  for  seed,  because  fully  matured  seed  possesses  powers  of  re- 
sistance. Disease  organisms  may  be  present  but  they  are  unable  to 
get  a  hold  on  the  strong,  healthy  grain,  while  the  early  selected  seed 
would  be  converted  to  a  mouldy  mass  by  the  end  of  the  third  day  after 
being  put  in  the  germination  test. 

In  field  practise,  what  should  be  the  temperature  and  moisture 
content  of  the  soil  to  give  the  little  corn  plant  a  rapid  start  ?  The 
problems  with  the  plantlet  are  of  the  same  sort  as  those  having  to  da 
with  the  germination  stage.  An  important  study  has  just  been  con- 
cluded by  the  Agronomy  Department,  and  the  material  prepared  for 
publication,  on  the  relation  of  early  vigor  of  the  corn  plant  to  yield. 
This  problem  concerns  itself  with  the  plantlet  stage  primarily. 

The  Station  has  data  covering  twelve  years  of  work  on  the  fre- 
quency of  the  cultivation  of  corn.  It  is  impossible  to  interpret  these 
figures  because  we  know  so  little  regarding  the  nutrition  cycle  of  corn. 
If  cultivation  assists  in  nitrate  production,  is  the  cultivation  performed 
at  such  a  time  and  under  such  conditions  as  will  render  these  nitrates 
available  at  the  time  needed  by  the  growing  plant?  The  growing 
plant  undergoes  rapid  changes  in  its  nutrient  requirements  and  reacts 


CROP  PRODUCTION  159 

in  its  several  growth  phases  in  widely  different  manners.  The 
nutrient  element  required  today  may  not  be  liberated  until  tomorrow ; 
and  the  stimulations  making  for  increased  growth  and  reproduction 
one  day,  may  under  apparently  the  same  conditions  lead  to  decreased 
production.  Investigations  on  the  rots  of  corn  which  are  being  con- 
ducted in  this  state  are  attracting  the  attention  of  corn  growers  every- 
where. Two  examples  from  this  work  will  give  additional  proof  as 
to  how  plant  physiology  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  such  studies. 

Researches  conducted  by  James  G.  Dickson,  at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin,  point  to  a  relatively  high  optimum  temperature  for  the 
growth  and  sporulation  of  wheat  scab  and  corn  rot  organisms,  Gib- 
berella  saubinetii.  When  this  fungus  is  inoculated  on  to  corn  and 
wheat  seedlings,  the  maximum  development  occurs  at  widely  different 
temperatures.  On  wheat  growing  under  greenhouse  conditions,  the 
fungus  behaves  as  we  would  normally  expect  it  to ;  its  growth  is  most 
rapid  and  the  greatest  injury  is  caused  to  the  host  when  the  tempera- 
ture is  high.  When  grown  on  corn,  practically  the  reverse  is  true. 
The  greatest  growth  of  fungus  and  the  least  growth  of  the  young  corn 
plants  takes  place  under  relatively  low  temperature  environment.  This 
would  suggest  the  desirability  of  planting  corn  late  in  the  season  when 
the  temperature  is  high.  However,  some  Illinois  experiments  with 
diseased  corn  show  that  when  corn  planting  is  delayed  the  severity  of 
the  disease  is  increased,  the  yield  reduced,  and  the  quality  of  grain 
lowered.  Thus  it  is  manifest  that  two  organisms  that  have  similar 
optimum  temperature  requirements  when  grown  alone,  may  have 
widely  different  requirements  for  their  best  growth  when  one  is 
allowed  to  parasitize  the  other.  Also  when  any  one  of  the  controlled 
standard  conditions  is  changed,  the  relationship  of  the  host  and  parasite 
is  affected.  In  other  words,  there  seems  to  exist  in  nature  a  state  of 
equilibrium  between  plants  and  the  various  factors  which  make  up 
their  environment.  When  any  one  or  more  of  these  are  altered,  the 
others  are  affected  and  the  equilibrium  is  changed  accordingly. 

Further,  our  corn-rot  investigations  bring  sharply  to  mind  the 
problem  of  disease  resistance  and  immunity.  One  instance  will  suffice 
to  bring  this  point  clearly  before  us.  We  have  two  lots  of  corn,  one 
lot  very  much  like  the  other,  and  when  planted  on  clean  land  the 
yields  are  about  the  same,  but  when  planted  on  infested  land  the  yield 
of  one  was  reduced  about  fifty-two  per  cent  and  the  other  only  about 
two  per  cent.  Why  this  great  difference?  We  naturally  ask  our- 
selves, What  is  disease  resistance  and  what  is  immunity  to  disease? 

Such  problems  are  typical  of  studies  in  the  physiological  behavior 
of  different  kinds  of  strains  or  varieties  of  corn,  and  upon  such  studies 


160  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

must  be  based  sound  field  practises.  Answers  to  such  questions  will 
give  us  the  key  to  the  crop-adaptation  puzzle. 

Wheat  is  our  most  important  small  grain ;  therefore  it  is  fitting 
that  some  time  be  given  to  the  underlying  principles  of  its  management. 
Turkey  Red  is  the  most  widely  grown  of  winter  wheats.  It  is  a 
leading  wheat  for  Central  Illinois.  Our  winters  are  rarely  ever 
severe  enough  to  injure  the  crop.  Red  Rock,  a  much  heralded  wheat 
from  Michigan,  winter-kills  about  one-half  the  time.  Why  this 
difference  in  adaptation  to  climate?  At  this  date,  an  effort  is  being 
made  to  determine  the  best  moisture  and  temperature  relationship  at 
time  of  germination,  since  this  is  believed  to  be  of  large  significance 
in  determining  how  varieties  differ. 

The  Station  has  five  years  of  work  on  the  time  of  seeding  spring 
wheat.  The  yield  from  the  early  March  seeding  is  about  twenty 
bushels,  the  April  seeding  is  twenty-two  bushels  per  acre.  Is  it  be- 
cause these  spring  wheats  develop  greater  vigor  by  being  seeded  early, 
thus  at  low  temperature  ?  Or  is  it  that  the  crop  seeded  early  develops 
its  flowers  early,  thereby  avoiding  the  influence  of  the  hot  weather 
of  late  June  or  early  July  ?  We  believe  it  is  the  former,  and  not  the 
latter,  as  we  used  to  believe.  Marquis  Spring  Wheat  is  a  most  sat- 
isfactory wheat  for  DeKalb,  125  miles  north  of  here.  Illinois  No.  I 
leads  Marquis  at  Urbana  by  six  bushels  per  acre.  It  has  been  found 
that  Marquis  germinates  at  a  lower  temperature  than  Illinois  No.  I. 
Here  is  a  suggestion  that  one  fundamental  difference  is  in  the  tem- 
perature best  for  germination,  a  fact  which  suggests  why  Marquis  is 
best  for  northern  Illinois  and  Illinois  No.  I  is  best  for  central  Illinois. 

All  of  these  problems  aim  at  an  understanding  of  the  normal  life 
cycle  of  the  crops  studied,  an  understanding  of  which  is  necessary  be- 
fore an  accurate  determination  of  the  adaptability  of  any  crop  can 
be  made. 

I  feel  confident  that  the  outline  presented  above  points  to  an 
affirmative  answer  to  President  Kinley's  question,  "Is  there  any  sys- 
tem which  might  be  adopted  whereby  the  adaptation  of  different  crops 
to  different  soils  may  be  more  accurately  determined,  and  the  use  of 
proper  crops  on  soils  be  insured?"  I  believe  this  plan  will  give  to 
this  great  agricultural  state  a  system  of  crop  production  that  shall  re- 
flect credit  upon  the  institution  initiating  it,  and  will  add  increased 
wealth  and  prosperity  to  the  people  of  Illinois. 


ECONOMIC  PHASES  OF  FARMING 

W.  F.  HANDSCHIN,  Professor  of  Farm  Organization  and  Management 

N  DISCUSSING  the  economic  phases  of  farming,  the  ques- 
tion of  prices  received  for  farm  products  and  prices  which 
must  be  paid  by  the  farmer  for  the  goods  and  services  which 
he  wishes  to  buy  is  of  primary  importance.  It  is  important 
to  pay  somewhat  special  attention  to  the  question  of  prices 
at  this  time  because  of  the  fact  that  all  of  our  price  rela- 
tionships have  been  entirely  upset  during  the  past  five  or  six  years. 
Unless  we  analyze  the  situation  with  some  care  we  are  likely  to  mis- 
take an  emergency,  even  tho  a  somewhat  prolonged  emergency,  for  the 
usual  state  of  affairs. 

READJUSTMENT  OF  PRICES 

The  farmer  is  suffering  just  now,  more  than  from  any  other 
cause,  from  a  maladjustment  of  prices  between  his  products  and  the 
products  of  other  industries.  To  be  sure,  other  factors  have  con- 
tributed to  his  difficulty,  but  the  wide  disparity  between  the  price  of 
farm  products  and  the  price  of  the  goods  and  services  which  the 
farmer  usually  buys,  constitutes  in  my  judgment  the  principal  cause  of 
the  farmer's  present  difficult  situation. 

While  farming  has  been  practically  the  only  important  industry 
which  has  maintained  normal  production  during  the  year  1921,  the 
price  of  farm  products  has  fallen,  without  a  corresponding  reduction 
of  prices  in  other  industries,  to  a  point  which  leaves  the  farmer  with 
scarcely  more  than  seventy  per  cent  of  his  pre-war  purchasing  power. 
This  in  turn  has  reacted  on  business  in  general  through  a  reduction  in 
the  demand  for  the  products  of  city  industries,  and  has  been  one  of 
the  chief  factors  contributing  to  the  widespread  unemployment  and 
general  business  depression  which  has  obtained  during  the  past  twelve 
months. 

As  a  result  of  this  maladjustment  of  prices  between  farming  and 
other  industries,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  anomalous  position  in  which 
the  manufacturer  and  merchandiser  have  been  able  to  maintain  sat- 
isfactory prices;  and  at  the  same  time  "business  is  rotten,"  profits  are 
practically  unknown,  and  prosperity  is  still  just  around  the  corner. 
The  laboring  man  is  still  enjoying  a  good  wage  scale,  in  the  main,  but 
a  third  of  his  fellows  are  out  of  employment,  many  more  are  working 

161 


162  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

on  reduced  schedules;  and  the  total  wage  fund  perhaps  is  reduced 
fully  as  much  as  is  the  farmer's  income. 

I  cannot,  in  this  brief  paper,  take  the  time  to  enter  upon  a  dis- 
cussion of  what  seem  to  be  the  chief  causes  of  this  contradictory  state 
of  affairs  in  our  industrial  life.  It  is  significant,  however,  to  note  that 
practically  all  classes  of  men  seem  now  to  agree  that  before  we  can 
have  anything  like  a  return  to  normal  business  conditions,  prices  of 
all  important  commodities  must  at  least  approximate  a  common  level. 

Whether  this  leveling  of  prices  is  to  be  brought  about  by  raising 
the  price  of  farm  products,  copper,  rubber,  sugar  and  other  essential 
commodities  which  are  substantially  below  the  level  of  general  prices ; 
or  whether  it  is  to  be  brought  about  by  scaling  down  the  price  of  other 
products  to  the  price  level  of  the  products  mentioned,  depends  largely 
upon  whose  opinion  is  sought.  The  farmer  wants  higher  prices  and, 
for  once,  nearly  everyone  seems  to  be  agreed  that  he  should  have  what 
he  wants.  All  seem  to  be  in  favor  of  the  plan.  Except  for  the  fact 
that  it  does  not  work  it  seems  to  be  entirely  satisfactory. 

The  farmer  would  no  doubt,  as  a  matter  of  first  choice,  have  his 
prices  boosted  to  the  level  of  industrial  prices  and  wages.  If  he  can- 
not have  this,  he  wants  lower  prices  for  the  things  which  he  desires 
to  buy.  In  this,  however,  he  seems  as  yet  to  have  enlisted  only  partial 
cooperation  from  manufacturers,  merchandisers  and  wage  earners. 
Meanwhile  he  sits  tight,  reduces  his  expenditures  to  the  minimum,  in 
the  main  because  he  has  little  to  spend  after  paying  interest,  rent, 
taxes,  wages  and  meeting  other  necessary  expenses.  He  waits,  because 
he  must,  for  the  steady  but  unrelenting  economic  pressure  in  the  situa- 
tion to  teach  other  industries  that  only  normal  production  of  goods 
made  on  wages  and  sold  at  prices  that  will  move  them  into  consump- 
tion can  bring  general  prosperity,  and  that  much-to-be-desired  state 
which  President  Harding  calls  normalcy. 

If  we  agree  that  prices  must  reach  a  common  level  before  we  can 
have  general  prosperity, — a  doctrine  which  seems  now  to  be  somewhat 
generally  accepted, — it  is  highly  important  that  we  try  to  estimate  as 
accurately  as  possible  whether  farm  prices  will  go  up,  whether  other 
prices  will  come  down,  or  whether  these  two  sets  of  prices  will  meet 
at  some  point  between  their  present  levels. 

In  attempting  to  predict  what  will  probably  happen  to  prices,  I 
can  take  the  time  to  set  down  only  a  few  of  what  seem  to  be  the  more 
important  facts  bearing  on  the  problem.  We  know,  for  example, 
that  the  production  of  the  cereal  grains  in  the  United  States  has  been 
considerably  above  normal  during  the  past  three  years.  Three  sue- 


ECONOMIC  PHASES  163 

cessive  favorable  seasons  and  high  yields  have  given  us  the  largest 
production  of  corn  during  1919,  1920,  and  1921  of  any  three-year 
period  in  our  history.  The  present  corn  surplus  is  the  largest  on 
record.  Since  corn  is  the  basis  of  our  meat  making  industry  we  can 
scarcely  expect  any  great  increase  in  live-stock  prices  in  the  near 
future,  altho  we  may  logically  expect  the  price  of  corn  to  approximate 
the  level  of  live-stock  prices  before  many  months  have  passed.  While 
the  price  of  wheat  is  considerably  below  the  level  of  general  com- 
modity prices,  it  is  substantially  above  the  pre-war  figure  and  some- 
what above  the  level  of  general  farm  prices.  This  is  no  doubt  due  to 
the  very  considerable  exports  of  wheat  made  during  1921. 

We  know  also  that  as  long  as  we  do  not  have  general  prosperity, 
the  consumption  of  farm  products  in  the  United  States  must  of  neces- 
sity be  below  normal.  Europe  is  now,  and  must  remain  for  a  long 
time,  on  a  subnormal  basis  of  consumption  with  reference  to  farm 
products.  In  view  of  these  facts,  he  is  an  optimist  indeed  who  can 
see  any  great  prospect  for  a  recovery  in  the  price  of  farm  products 
within  the  next  twelve  months. 

If  prices  must  reach  a  common  level,  and  the  prices  of  farm 
products  offer  no  prospect  of  substantial  early  recovery,  it  does  not 
require  more  than  one  shrewd  guess  as  to  what  must  happen  to 
prices.  One  and  only  one  conclusion  remains;  the  price  of  goods 
made  by  the  city  industries  must  come  down.  It  is  only  a  question 
of  how  long  we  wish  to  defer  the  return  to  a  reasonable  measure 
of  prosperity.  This  conclusion  in  fact  offers  the  first,  and  in  my 
judgment,  the  most  important  measure  of  early  relief  to  the  farmer 
in  his  present  difficult  situation. 

This  price  problem,  which  just  now  confronts  the  farmer  in 
somewhat  acute  form,  is  a  good  example  of  the  kind  of  question  in 
which  the  farmer  must  be  continually  exercising  his  individual  business 
judgment.  Obviously,  he  cannot  himself  assemble  the  information 
necessary  to  making  such  judgments  intelligently.  He  must  depend 
upon  federal,  state,  or  private  institutions  to  supply  him  with  basic 
information  in  this  field.  The  price  studies  made  during  the  past  two 
or  three  years  by  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor,  by  the  College  of  Agri- 
culture of  Cornell  University,  and  by  other  agencies,  public  and 
private,  are  good  examples  of  the  kind  of  service  which  the  Agricul- 
tural College  and  Experiment  Station  should  render  in  increasing 
measure  in  the  future.  Without  such  information,  both  the  individual 
farmer  and  his  organization  will  be  working  largely  in  the  dark  in 
attempting  to  solve  many  of  their  economic  conditions. 


164  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

COLLECTIVE  MARKETING  OF  FARM  PRODUCTS 

The  farmer  has  long  felt  that  he  should  have  better  facilities  for 
marketing  his  crops  and  animals.  Because  of  the  violent  decline  in 
the  price  of  farm  products  experienced  during  the  past  year  he  seems 
to  have  become  more  fully  convinced  that  our  present  system  of 
marketing  is  hopelessly  inadequate.  At  the  present  time  one  or  more 
farmers'  organizations  are  developing  plans  for  the  collective  market- 
ing of  nearly  every  one  of  our  staple  farm  crops  in  one  or  more  im- 
portant producing  areas.  All  of  this  is  being  done  in  large  measure 
without  the  basic  information  necessary  to  the  development  of  plans 
which  shall  conform  in  their  essentials  to  good  economic  procedure 
and  sound  business  practise.  Without  such  information,  we  must 
learn  largely  by  our  own  experience,  which  is  usually  both  expensive 
and  hazardous,  instead  of  being  able  to  profit  by  the  experience  of 
other  undertakings  subject  to  the  same  economic  laws  and  principles. 

We  hear  much  these  days,  for  example,  regarding  the  orderly 
marketing  of  farm  crops.  By  this  is  meant,  as  I  understand  it,  that 
the  farmer  shall  endeavor  to  market  his  crops  as  they  are  required  for 
consumption.  Since  the  consumption  of  nearly  all  of  our  important 
farm  crops  is  surprizingly  uniform  throughout  the  twelve  months  of 
the  year,  the  farmer  would  have  to  market  approximately  one-twelfth 
of  his  crops  each  month  in  the  year.  Reduced  to  its  simplest  terms, 
in  the  abstract,  this  would  mean  that  the  farmer,  rather  than  some- 
one else,  should  carry  his  crops  until  the  time  when  they  are  required 
for  consumption. 

In  actual  practise  the  problem  must  be  far  less  simple.  Someone 
must  first  determine  how  much  of  the  crop  there  is  on  hand.  How 
much  of  it  is  to  be  marketed.  How  much  would  probably  be  con- 
sumed at  different  prices,  and  what  prices  will  have  to  be  named  to 
move  all  of  the  crop  into  consumption  during  the  year,  allowing  of 
course  for  the  normal  carry-over.  In  order  that  one-twelfth  of  the 
crop  shall  move  into  consumption  during  each  month  of  the  year,  it 
would  no  doubt  be  necessary  to  pool  all,  or  practically  all,  of  the  crop 
to  be  marketed  and  pro-rate  the  monthly  price  to  all  of  the  consignors 
to  the  pool. 

In  connection  with  this  problem  I  cannot  help  but  point  out  the 
danger  of  carrying  over  large  surpluses  from  one  year  to  another,  in 
the  hope  that  subsequent  reduced  production  will  make  possible  the 
absorption  of  such  surpluses.  The  most  obvious  fact  should  be  that 
the  very  act  of  somewhat  artificially  maintaining  prices  by  withholding 
a  part  of  the  crop  from  the  market  would  tend  to  increase  rather  than 


ECONOMIC  PHASES  165 

to  reduce  production;  and,  one  year  with  another,  would  tend  to  in- 
crease rather  than  to  reduce  the  size  of  the  surplus.  If  any  proof  of 
this  thesis  is  required,  we  need  only  cite  the  experience  in  sugar,  rubber, 
tobacco,  copper,  and  several  other  essential  products,  the  surplus  of 
which  has  been  increased  in  most  cases  to  unprecedented  amounts,  by 
means  of  a  stimulating  price  and  a  tendency  to  hoard  the  products  for 
a  still  higher  price.  The  same  thing  happened  in  the  case  of  a  variety 
of  manufactured  products  as  well  as  in  the  raw  materials  mentioned. 

Until  recently,  it  was  somewhat  generally  supposed  by  those  in- 
terested in  the  collective  marketing  of  farm  products,  that  the  prin- 
cipal steps  in  the  successful  conduct  of  such  activities  were  integration, 
standardization,  warehousing,  transportation,  and  similar  processes 
having  to  do  with  the  physical  handling  of  the  commodities.  We  see 
now  that  these  essential  steps  in  the  processes  dealing  with  the  physical 
goods  are  in  themselves  relatively  simple,  and  that  the  real  marketing 
problem  deals  with  such  questions  as  the  influence  of  supply  and  de- 
mand on  price ;  and,  no  less  important,  the  influence  of  price  on  supply 
and  demand.  We  have  also  come  to  appreciate  that  the  problem  of 
handling  the  physical  goods  is  relatively  simple  as  compared  with  the 
problem  of  financing  the  marketing  of  such  goods.  My  point  is  not 
that  the  farmer  cannot  through  collective  effort  improve  the  present 
marketing  systems,  but  merely  that  we  have  not  made  any  adequate 
study  of  the  economic  principles  underlying  the  process  of  marketing 
farm  products.  We  have  dealt  too  much  in  general  terms  such  as  or- 
derly marketing,  cooperative  marketing,  costs  of  distribution,  reason- 
able price,  and  a  variety  of  other  terms,  which  we  use  fluently,  without 
bringing  them  under  careful  economic  analysis  in  order  to  see  what 
they  really  mean  when  subjected  to  the  test  of  practical  application. 

In  the  problem  of  meeting  the  farmers*  credit  needs  the  question 
is  being  raised  whether  either  the  Federal  Reserve  System,  a  system 
based  on  deposit  banking;  or  the  Federal  Farm  Loan  System,  a 
system  based  on  long  time  bond  investments,  can  offer  the  farmer  the 
kind  of  credit  facilities  which  his  production  and  marketing  operations 
require.  We  know  that  the  Federal  Reserve  System  was  designed 
primarily  to  meet  short-time  credit  needs;  that  is,  for  ninety  days 
or  less.  The  Federal  Farm  Loan  System  was  designed  to  meet  the 
needs  for  mortgage  credit  extending  over  periods  of  five  to  thirty-five 
years.  As  compared  with  these  facilities,  certain  of  the  farmer's  credit 
needs  require  that  his  loans  be  carried  from  six  to  twelve  months,  or 
even  longer.  Many  believe  that  we  need  still  a  third  or  intermediate 
type  of  credit,  designed  to  meet  certain  peculiar  needs  of  the  farmer 


166  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

in  so  far  as  they  cannot  be  satisfactorily  met  by  the  two  existing 
agencies. 

These  are  merely  illustrations  of  the  kind  of  questions  confronting 
the  farmer  and  his  organizations  in  their  efforts  to  solve  some  of 
their  economic  problems.  They  indicate  the  need  for  a  more  thoro- 
going  and  comprehensive  program  of  research  in  the  field  of  agri- 
cultural economics.  In  such  a  program  the  Agricultural  College  and 
Experiment  Station  should  have  a  large  part. 

FARMING  A  BUSINESS  OF  SMALL  UNITS 

While  one  of  the  most  obvious  facts  about  farming  is  that  it  is 
a  business  of  small  units,  the  real  significance  of  this  fact  is  only 
partially  understood.  Because  farming  is  a  business  of  small  units, 
and  because  of  the  public  importance  of  its  efficient  development  as 
an  industry,  practically  all  modern  nations  have  made  some  effort 
to  subsidize  research  activities  in  the  interest  of  developing  the  more 
important  scientific  facts  underlying  the  business.  The  agricultural 
experiment  station  is  the  result  of  this  development  in  the  United 
States.  It  would  be  plainly  impossible  for  the  individual  farmer  to 
work  out  the  facts  and  principles  which  have  been  developed  by  these 
publicly  supported  institutions. 

It  would  be  almost  equally  impossible  for  many  individual 
farmers  to  avail  themselves  of  the  information  developed  by  the 
experiment  station.  To  insure  the  more  complete  dissemination,  and 
introduction  into  actual  farm  practise,  of  this  information  we  have 
established  the  publicly  subsidized  Agricultural  Extension  Service 
and  the  County  Farm  Adviser  working  in  cooperation  with  the 
County  Farm  Bureau. 

One  of  the  principal  reasons  for  the  formation  of  cooperative 
and  other  collective  farmers'  organizations  is  the  fact  that  the  indi- 
vidual farmer,  representing  a  small  business  unit,  cannot  deal  on  the 
basis  of  equal  advantage  with  the  larger  organized  groups  with  which 
he  must  do  business  at  many  points.  In  matters  of  legislation,  rate- 
making,  taxation,  and  collective  bargaining  the  individual  farmer 
must  be  largely  ineffective.  Collectively  he  develops  strength  to  deal 
on  a  somewhat  more  nearly  equal  basis  with  other  organized  groups. 

Whether  this  collective  organization  is  to  be  of  permanent  value 
to  the  farmer  depends  upon  how  he  uses  this  newly  acquired  power. 
If  he  uses  it  in  his  own  interest,  he  may  benefit  largely  by  it  only  in 
so  far  as  his  use  of  it  does  not  conflict  with  the  public  interest.  If  he 
goes  beyond  this  point,  in  price  enforcement,  legislation,  rate-making, 


ECONOMIC  PHASES  167 

taxation  and  other  lines,  both  he  and  the  public  are  certain  to  suffer 
as  a  result.  Here  indeed  lies  great  opportunity  for  fine  discrimina- 
tion in  making  all-important  judgments  on  the  part  of  farmers' 
organizations.  It  will  require  both  comprehensive  information  and 
a  high  order  of  moral  responsibility  to  make  such  decisions  wisely. 

Because  farming  is  a  business  of  small  units,  more  than  one-half 
of  all  the  people  employed  in  the  entire  industry  must  be  possessed 
of  a  degree  of  management  skill  adequate  to  assuming  the  sole 
responsibility  for  the  success  of  the  business.  This  places  a  peculiar 
handicap  on  farming  as  compared  with  many  other  industries.  In 
most  of  the  manufacturing  industries  not  more  than  one  person  in 
five  or  six  is  required  to  take  direct  responsibility  for  other  workers 
or  for  the  making  of  dividends.  The  inevitable  result  is  that  the 
management  skill  employed  in  farming  must  in  general  be  of  a  lower 
grade  than  that  employed  in  the  large-scale  industries. 

If  in  the  future  we  are  to  continue  to  have  small  farms,  efficiently 
operated,  we  need  to  make  every  reasonable  effort  to  maintain  and 
improve  the  management  skill  of  our  farm  operators.  This  is  already 
being  done  in  very  large  measure  through  our  general  educational 
program  in  the  state  colleges  of  agriculture  and  in  the  secondary 
schools.  The  extension  agencies,  developed  mainly  during  the  past 
ten  years,  have  already  made  a  splendid  contribution  to  the  improve- 
ment of  management  methods  particularly  in  the  technical  processes 
relating  to  production.  The  combined  influence  of  resident  teaching 
in  our  colleges  and  secondary  schools,  and  the  extension  work  carried 
on  with  actual  farmers  on  their  own  farms,  should  go  a  long  way 
toward  offsetting  the  handicap  in  management  skill  imposed  upon  the 
farmer. 

STANDARDIZED  SYSTEMS  OF  FARMING 

I  believe  we  should  go  even  farther  than  this.  I  believe  the 
experiment  stations,  through  investigation  of  the  most  successful  farms 
in  the  various  agricultural  regions  and  through  their  other  lines  of 
research,  should  be  able  in  the  relatively  near  future  to  make  a  be- 
ginning in  the  development  of  somewhat  standardized  systems  of 
farming  for  each  of  the  more  important  type-of-farming  areas.  I 
appreciate  fully  that  such  systems  would  have  to  be  made  flexible 
enough  to  meet  the  needs  of  individual  conditions.  However,  where 
soil  types  are  fairly  uniform  and  the  conditions  of  climate,  topography, 
markets,  and  transportation  facilities  are  in  the  main  the  same,  there 
must  be  at  any  given  time  a  best  system  of  farming  which  can  be 


168  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

defined  within  somewhat  narrow  limits,  if  we  but  have  the  basic 
information.  I  recognize  also  that  the  individual  qualifications  and 
personal  preference  of  the  farmer  and  his  family  must  be  considered 
in  the  problem. 

If  it  is  true,  however,  as  all  studies  go  to  show,  that  any  given 
region  can  never  grow  successfully  more  than  three  or  four  staple 
crops,  it  must  follow  that  the  farmer  has  after  all  little  economic 
choice  as  to  what  he  will  grow.  To  be  sure,  he  may  vary,  to  some 
extent,  the  proportions  of  the  crops  grown.  But  unless  these  crops 
rank  practically  the  same  from  the  standpoint  of  relative  profitable- 
ness, he  again  has  little  choice.  In  any  event,  he  must  grow  a  some- 
what balanced  acreage  of  the  crops  included  in  his  rotation,  in  order 
to  secure  good  distribution  of  labor,  the  control  of  insect  and  disease 
pests,  and  a  fair  measure  of  insurance  against  crop  failure  or 
unfavorable  prices  for  any  one  crop. 

In  the  production  of  animals  he  has  a  somewhat  wider  range 
of  choice  than  is  the  case  with  crops,  since  animals  in  general  enjoy 
a  somewhat  wider  range  of  adaptation  than  plants.  Here  too,  how- 
ever, he  must  soon  be  limited  by  the  relative  profitableness  of  different 
animal  enterprises. 

Once  we  get  the  basic  facts,  showing  just  what  combinations 
of  crop  and  animal  enterprises  are  best  adapted  to  a  given  region,  we 
must  recognize,  I  believe,  that  any  considerable  deviation  from  this 
combination  will  of  necessity  prove  to  be  a  handicap  in  making  the 
maximum  economic  return.  In  fact  many  of  these  systems  are  already 
in  some  measure  developed  in  the  various  regions.  We  need  only  to 
find  them,  determine  the  essentials  of  their  organization  on  the  basis 
of  careful  accounting  analysis,  and  combine  the  fundamentals  of 
successful  management  practise  for  the  region  into  a  somewhat 
standardized  working  plan. 

I  realize  that  all  of  this  is  difficult,  in  the  minds  of  many  im- 
possible. My  only  reason  for  seriously  discussing  it  in  this  company 
is  that  if  we  are  to  continue  to  produce  food  for  our  constantly 
increasing  population  at  a  price  which  they  can  pay,  and  at  which  we 
can  still  make  a  profit  on  the  enterprise,  we  must  introduce  into 
more  common  practise  a  high  degree  of  productivity  on  our  farms  and 
we  must  secure  this  productivity  at  the  smallest  possible  cost.  The 
realization  of  this  aim  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  well-being 
of  the  individual  farmer,  as  well  as  to  society  as  a  whole. 


ECONOMIC  PHASES  169 

LAND  PROBLEMS 

In  conclusion,  I  can  only  mention  a  few  of  the  other  problems, 
of  first  importance  to  the  farmer,  which  the  Agricultural  College  and 
Experiment  Station  should  bring  under  investigation  at  the  earliest 
possible  date. 

The  whole  field  of  farm  organization  and  operation  needs  to 
be  brought  under  more  careful  and  more  comprehensive  investiga- 
tion. Our  land  problems  need  to  be  more  carefully  studied.  We 
need  to  have  the  facts  regarding  land  ownership,  tenancy,  the  best 
adjustments  of  the  lease  contract,  and  other  phases  of  the  tenure 
problem.  We  need  to  learn  how  far  the  farmer  can  afford  to  go  in 
increasing  the  intensivity  of  production  on  our  better  lands  before 
he  will  get  decreased  returns.  We  should  have  more  information 
showing  when  we  can  afford  to  take  up  and  develop  our  land  areas 
not  as  yet  included  in  farms  or  not  yet  improved. 

The  whole  question  of  land  valuation  is  one  of  our  most  difficult 
problems.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  questions  in  the  valuation  of  any 
form  of  property  can  never  be  answered  with  absolute  accuracy,  it  is 
nevertheless  important  that  the  people  who  own  our  farm  lands  learn 
to  evalute  them  more  accurately  from  the  standpoint  of  their  actual 
economic  return.  A  large  part  of  the  tendency  to  over-value  farm 
lands  in  the  United  States  during  the  past  has  been  due  to  faulty 
accounting  procedure  in  capitalizing  too  large  a  proportion  of  the 
gross  income  of  such  lands.  The  American  farmer,  and  the  corn- 
belt  farmer  in  particular,  has  tended  to  use  his  surplus  in  raising  the 
price  of  land  rather  than  in  raising  the  standard  of  living. 

These  are  some  of  the  more  important  problems  to  which,  in  my 
judgment,  the  Agricultural  College  and  Experiment  Station  should 
be  attempting  to  make  answer  in  dealing  with  the  economic  phases 
of  farming  in  the  next  few  years. 


THE  AGRICULTURAL  EXTENSION  SERVICE 

M.  L.  MOSHER,  President  National  Association  of  Farm  Advisers,  Eureka 

HE  Agricultural  Extension  Service  is  the  name  given  to 
that  part  of  the  program  for  agricultural  development 
which  connects  the  individual  farmer  and  his  family  with 
the  work  of  the  state  and  national  departments,  institu- 
tions, and  organizations  which  are  working  to  make  farm- 
ing more  profitable  and  to  insure  the  profitable  operation 
of  our  farms  in  the  future,  so  that  here  in  America  the  generations  to 
come  may  continue  to  have  enough  food  to  eat,  enough  clothes  to  wear, 
and  comfortable  houses  for  shelter.  Another  function  of  the  Ex- 
tension Service  is  to  carry  to  individual  families  on  the  farms  informa- 
tion as  to  how  the  profits  from  farming — when  there  are  profits — may 
be  spent  or  invested  so  as  to  bring  the  most  satisfaction  to  themselves, 
to  their  children,  their  neighbors,  and  the  Nation. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  EXTENSION  SERVICE 

The  development  of  the  Extension  Service  has  been  a  very  natural 
one.  Fifty  or  sixty  years  ago,  the  agricultural  colleges  were  organ- 
ized to  teach  the  farm  boys  the  science  and  the  art  of  successful  farm- 
ing. The  teachers  soon  learned  that  they  did  not  'have  the  necessary 
facts  with  which  to  teach ;  so  about  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  the  state 
experiment  stations  were  organized.  Gradually  the  people  out  on  the 
farms  became  interested  in  getting  more  and  more  of  the  accumulated 
information,  and  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  an  extension  service  was 
instituted  in  order  to  carry  such  information  to  the  farms.  The 
leaders  of  the  movement  soon  adopted  the  plan  of  placing  a  representa- 
tive of  the  agricultural  departments  and  institutions,  known  as  a 
"county  agent"  or  "farm  adviser,"  in  each  agricultural  county  in 
order  that  he  might  live  among  the  people  and  maintain  a  close  per- 
sonal connection  between  the  farm  family  and  the  colleges  and  the  de- 
partments of  agriculture. 

The  formation  of  the  organizations  now  known  as  county  Farm 
Bureaus,  through  which  the  farm  adviser  might  function  and  by  which 
the  payment  of  the  expenses  of  maintaining  the  work  might  be  in- 
sured, naturally  followed  the  coming  of  the  farm  advisers.  The 
federation  of  these  county  Farm  Bureaus  into  state  organizations,  and 
of  the  state  federations  into  the  American  Farm  Bureau  Federation, 
was  a  very  natural  development.  The  state  and  national  federations 

170 


THE  EXTENSION  SERVICE  171 

are  primarily  representative  and  promotional  organizations,  through 
which  farm  people  may  be  represented  before  legislative  assemblies  and 
in  conferences  with  other  organized  business  interests;  and  by  which 
economic  laws  affecting  the  business  of  farming  may  be  studied,  and 
the  development  of  cooperative  and  private  enterprises  which  will 
work  for  the  good  of  farm  people  and  of  all  the  people,  may  be  pro- 
moted. 

In  this  connection,  after  nearly  ten  years  of  service  as  farm  ad- 
viser in  two  corn-belt  states,  during  which  time  I  have  myself  done 
some  buying  and  selling  for  Farm  Bureau  members,  it  is  my  firm  con- 
viction that  it  is  a  mistake  for  the  Farm  Bureau  as  such  to  enter  into 
purely  merchandising  enterprises,  where  the  object  is  to  save  money 
rather  than  to  do  the  work  as  a  necessary  part  of  a  program 
planned  to  build  up  a  permanent  agriculture.  It  is  a  mistake  also  to 
use  Farm  Bureau  membership  fees  as  working  capital  in  any  buying 
and  selling  enterprise;  in  any  purchasing  done  for  the  Farm  Bureau 
members,  the  selling  price  should  be  enough  above  the  cost  to  pay  the 
overhead  expense.  In  other  words,  the  Farm  Bureau  membership 
fees  should  be  used  to  maintain  educational  and  promotional  work  for 
the  members  and  not  to  pay  the  overhead  of  business  enterprises. 
Neither  should  the  time  of  the  farm  adviser  be  taken  from  what  I 
would  call  the  legitimate  work  of  the  Extension  Service  and  of  the 
Farm  Bureau. 

In  considering  the  future  of  the  Extension  Service,  three  de- 
veloping conditions  may  well  be  brought  to  your  attention. 

POTENTIAL  LEADERS  ON  OUR  FARMS 

During  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  several  forces  have  been 
at  work  which  have  gradually  developed  a  vast  army  of  potential 
leaders  on  the  farms  of  Illinois.  Hundreds  of  graduates  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Agriculture  are  now  on  the  farms.  Six  years  ago,  when  Farm 
Bureau  work  was  begun  in  Woodford  county,  there  were  only  two 
or  three  men  on  the  farms  of  the  county  who  were  graduates  of  agri- 
cultural colleges,  whereas  now  there  are  ten  or  a  dozen  of  them. 
One  is  president  of  the  Farm  Bureau,  and  one  who  had  two  years 
of  college  work  is  president  of  the  county  farmers'  institute.  A  home 
economics  graduate  is  president  of  the  women's  division  of  the 
farmers'  institute. 

The  winter  short  courses  have  been  the  means  of  inspiring  other 
hundreds  of  men  and  women  to  study  their  work  and  to  fit  them- 
selves to  take  places  of  leadership  in  their  communities.  The  Illinois 


172  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

Farmers'  Institute  has  been  a  tremendous  force  which  has  inspired 
thousands  of  farm  people  and  helped  to  develop  in  them  the  qualities 
of  leadership.  The  president  of  the  Illinois  Agricultural  Association 
stated  publicly  a  few  days  ago  that  he  first  became  interested  in  organ- 
ized agricultural  work  when  he  was  asked  to  assist  the  corn  judge  at 
a  farmers'  institute  fifteen  years  ago.  The  Grange  has  helped  in 
many  localities  to  develop  some  of  the  strongest  leaders  in  the  county 
and  the  state,  as  well  as  in  the  home  communities.  Chautauqua  speak- 
ers have  led  many  a  farmer  and  his  good  wife,  and  many  a  boy  and 
girl,  to  take  a  new  and  greater  interest  in  farm  life.  These,  with 
other  forces,  have  developed  leaders  in  nearly  every  community  in 
the  state. 

The  development  of  the  Farm  Bureau,  which,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  is  primarily  an  extension  organization,  has  been  the  means  of 
bringing  into  activity  a  great  number  of  these  potential  leaders.  It 
has  seemed  to  me  during  the  past  year  that  there  is  just  now  a  rapid 
increase  in  the  number  of  men  and  women  who  are  taking  their  places 
as  leaders  in  community,  county,  and  state  work.  How  this  active 
and  potential  leadership  may  be  utilized  in  the  Extension  Service  of 
the  near  future  will  be  considered  later  in  connection  with  another 
condition  which  has  gradually  been  developing. 

THE  GROWING  APPRECIATION  OF  SPECIALISTS 

The  same  influences  which  have  been  at  work  developing  the 
active  and  potential  leadership  in  every  community  in  Illinois  have 
tended  to  create  in  the  minds  of  the  same  people  a  respect  for  the 
work  and  the  opinions  of  specialists.  The  college  student  who  has 
come  to  realize,  during  a  thoro  course  of  study,  the  tremendous  amount 
of  labor  and  the  thousands  of  soil  tests  made  by  Dr.  Hopkins  and 
his  associates  and  successors,  has  a  real  regard  for  the  statements  of 
fact  and  of  opinion  by  the  soil  specialists  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 
The  student  of  animal  diseases  who  learns  of  the  years  of  patient 
study  and  the  thoro  tests  made  by  those  men  who  discovered  and 
developed  the  serum-virus  preventive  treatment  for  hog  cholera  will 
listen  to  or  read  with  respect  statements  made  by  the  same  and  other 
specialists  regarding  the  control  of  other  live-stock  diseases,  and  he 
will  not  hesitate  to  follow  those  suggestions  in  his  own  farming 
operations. 

The  short  course  student  who  learns  that  the  score  card  for  corn 
by  which  he  is  taught  to  select  his  seed  is  the  condensed  conclusion 
regarding  the  best  size  and  shape  and  condition  of  kernels  and  ears 


THE  EXTENSION  SERVICE  173 

as  determined  by  thousands  of  field  trials  in  several  corn-belt  states, 
is  not  only  ready  to  go  home  and  select  his  own  seed  accordingly  but 
he  is  also  ready  to  accept  other  recommendations  from  recognized 
specialists  regarding  seed  selection  and  along  other  lines.  The  farmer 
or  his  wife  who,  after  attending  a  poultry  culling  demonstration  put 
on  by  the  farmers'  institute  or  the  Farm  Bureau,  selects  his  own  flock 
of  hens  carefully  and  arranges  his  poultry  house  and  provides  the 
feed  and  care  as  suggested  by  the  poultry  specialist,  to  find  later  that 
his  net  income  has  been  doubled  and  trebled,  is  ready  to  read  with  a 
responsive  mind  the  statements  of  other  specialists  regarding  other 
lines  of  work. 

Looking  back  over  fifteen  years  of  service  in  state  and  county 
extension  work,  I  have  a  very  definite  feeling  that  there  is  now  a 
rapidly  developing  belief  in,  and  "a  growing  demand  for,  the  advice 
of  specialists  along  all  lines  which  have  to  do  with  the  science  and  the 
economics  of  both  farming  and  home  making. 

A  GROWING  APPRECIATION  OF  THE  PRACTICAL  KNOWLEDGE  GAINED 
BY  FARM  EXPERIENCE 

During  the  recent  rapid  development  of  the  Extension  Service, 
extension  workers  have  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  public  so 
many  instances  of  valuable  practises  that  have  been  developed  gradu- 
ally, through  the  years,  on  individual  farms  and  in  communities,  that 
there  is  now  a  rapidly  growing  realization  that  some  of  the  best 
lessons  regarding  the  art  of  agriculture  are  to  be  learned  out  on  the 
farms  of  the  country. 

The  announcement  made  this  past  year  by  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  method  of  sanitary  production  of 
pork,  known  as  the  "McLean  county  system  of  swine  sanitation,"  was 
preceded  five  years  by  the  publication  of  the  results  of  studies  made 
by  the  Department  of  Farm  Organization  and  Management  of  the 
University  of  Illinois,  on  the  farms  of  pork  producers  in  central 
Illinois.  In  these  studies  it  was  shown  that  the  men  who  raised  and 
fed  their  pigs  on  fresh  legume  pastures  were  able  to  produce  pork  for 
forty  to  sixty  per  cent  less  cost  per  pound  than  were  those  who  kept 
their  pigs  in  old  dry-lots  and  small,  long-used,  blue-grass  pastures. 
The  difference  was  then  attributed  largely  to  the  superior  value  of 
the  green  legume  forage  as  a  feed,  but  recent  developments  would 
indicate  that  much  of  the  difference  was  doubtless  due  to  the  better 
sanitary  conditions.  But  regardless  of  why  those  men  were  getting 
more  economic  returns  for  their  capital  and  labor,  the  fact  remains 


174  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

that  the  farm  management  studies  showed  how  they  were  doing  their 
work  to  increase  their  profits;  and  the  Extension  Service,  farm 
papers  and  farmers'  institute  workers  carried  the  story  of  their  suc- 
cess to  thousands  of  other  farmers,  many  of  whom  profited  by  the 
example.  About  twenty  years  ago,  out  in  Missouri,  an  unknown 
farmer  split  a  log  in  two,  made  a  sled  of  it  and  dragged  it  sideways 
up  and  down  the  road  along  his  farm.  His  success  in  maintaining 
a  serviceable  road  was  noticed,  and  the  King  split-log  drag  became 
known  throughout  the  country.  Out  of  its  use  has  been  developed  the 
patrol  maintenance  of  dirt  and  gravel  roads,  which  bids  fair  to 
revolutionize  road-building  methods  in  the  corn  belt. 

I  hope  that  reference  to  work  in  which  I  have  had  a  part  will  be 
pardoned.  I  will  use  it  here  because  it  illustrates  this  point  so  well. 
In  the  Woodford  county  corn  test,  in  which  seed  corn  submitted  by 
one  hundred  and  twenty  men  was  planted  in  comparative  field  trials 
for  three  consecutive  years,  those  men  who  had  followed  most 
closely  the  recent  teachings  of  the  utility  seed  corn  specialists  gradu- 
ally increased  their  corn  yields  until  their  seed  was  among  the  twenty 
per  cent  most  productive.  This  shows  the  value  of  following  the 
advice  of  specialists.  It  is  also  true,  however,  that  the  seed  entered  in 
the  test  by  a  few  men  who  had  been  selecting  seed  for  many  years  along 
lines  developed  by  themselves,  their  fathers,  and  their  grandfathers, 
far  outclassed  in  yielding  power  that  brought  in  by  those  other  men. 
Two  brothers  about  sixty  years  of  age,  who  had  learned  forty  years 
ago  from  their  father  how  to  select  seed,  and  who  had  never  attended 
a  college,  an  institute,  or  a  short  course,  had  some  of  the  highest 
yielding  corn.  The  son  of  one  of  these  men  had  one  of  the  best  lots 
of  seed  in  the  test.  This  test  shows,  therefore,  that  while  we  may 
well  listen  to  the  specialist,  we  may  well  watch,  too,  for  those 
profitable  practises  which  are  often  to  be  found  out  on  the  farms  of 
men  who  have  been  doing  things,  intuitively  perhaps,  in  a  way  that  is 
superior  to  the  plans  suggested  by  the  results  of  any  scientific  study 
which  has  yet  been  made. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  EXTENSION  SERVICE 

If  these  conditions,  which  have  been  pointed  out  as  really  to 
exist  are  facts,  then  they  have  a  very  definite  bearing  on  the  future  ex- 
tension policy  of  our  state.  I  believe  that  one  of  the  most  valuable 
functions  of  the  Extension  Service  in  the  future  will  be  to  develop 
local  leaders  and  give  them  work  to  do.  Let  us  encourage  those  who 
have  organizing  ability,  and  help  them  to  organize  the  community 


THE  EXTENSION  SERVICE  175 

club,  the  grange,  the  rural  church,  and  the  community  school  in  order 
that  they  may  render  the  great  service  which  such  community  organ- 
izations elsewhere  are  rendering  and  may  continue  to  render.  Some 
can  write.  Let  us  help  them  to  get  together  the  facts  being  discovered 
by  our  investigators,  and  the  records  of  successful  practises  that  are 
being  evolved  on  our  farms,  and  encourage  them  to  write  articles  and 
news  notes  for  the  local  papers  and  the  agricultural  press.  Some  of 
the  most  effective  writing  being  done  today  for  the  local  and  general 
press  is  that  contributed  by  men  and  women  on  the  farms.  Some 
people  are  naturally  good  speakers.  Let  us  use  them.  They  are 
needed  in  all  these  local  organizations,  to  furnish  information  con- 
cerning the  scientific  and  economic  principles  which  have  to  do  with 
successful  farm  work  and  satisfying  farm  life,  as  well  as  to  explain 
simple  farm  practises  which  will  make  farming  more  profitable  and 
farm  life  more  happy. 

I  believe  that  in  the  future  much  more  of  the  work  of  the  county 
farm  adviser  could  well  be  devoted  to  finding  these  potential  leaders 
with  their  varying  talents  and  helping  them  to  organize  for  work. 
The  collecting  of  facts  and  the  putting  of  them  into  shape  for  these 
local  leaders  to  use  may  well  be  a  greater  part  of  the  farm  adviser's 
work  than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  It  may  be  hard  for  some  of  us  who 
have  been  doing  much  of  the  organizing  and  writing  and  speaking  to 
turn  it  over  to  others ;  but  my  best  judgment  tells  me  that  he  who  suc- 
cessfully does  that  will  multiply  the  effectiveness  of  the  extension  ser- 
vice in  his  county  many  times  over. 

In  my  judgment  the  growing  desire  for  the  advise  of  specialists 
will  call  for  the  employment  of  more  of  them  in  our  State  Extension 
Service.  With  a  clientele  of  from  one  thousand  to  three  thousand 
farmers,  each  of  whom  expects  specialized  service  of  some  kind,  the 
farm  adviser  is  utterly  unable  to  render  the  satisfactory  service  which 
was  possible  when  he  was  working  with  three  or  four  hundred  people. 
This  great  increase  in  the  number  of  interested  people,  and  their  grow- 
ing belief  in  the  specialist,  make  it  imperative  that  more  men  and 
women  trained  along  special  lines  be  provided  to  go  out  into  the 
counties  and  communities  to  carry  to  the  receptive  people  the  informa- 
tion which  they  desire. 

While  I  believe  that  the  scientific  study  of  soil  problems,  of  the 
principles  of  plant  and  animal  breeding,  of  economic  laws,  etc.,  will 
carry  us  further,  years  hence,  than  any  one  has  yet  gone,  experiences 
of  the  past  lead  me  to  believe  that  there  are  men  on  the  farms  all  over 
Illinois  who  have  gone  further,  intuitively  perhaps,  along  many  lines 
than  the  most  thoro  scientific  study  has  yet  taken  us. 


176  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

While  I  believe  that  a  satisfactory  program  for  agricultural  de- 
velopment demands  increased  funds  and  more  people  to  be  devoted 
to  the  discovery  of  unknown  scientific  truths,  I  believe  just  as  fully 
that  the  most  efficient  extension  service  in  the  near  future  will  be  that 
which  provides  for  a  more  systematic  study  of  farm  practises  than  has 
been  undertaken  in  the  past,  in  order  to  find  those  which  are  worth 
disseminating.  There  should  be  strong  currents  of  information  com- 
ing in  from  the  farms  through  a  branch  of  the  Extension  Service,  to 
our  institutions  of  learning,  where  they  may  be  summarized  and  vital- 
ized and  sent  out  again  through  the  Extension  Service  to  thousands 
of  other  farmers  throughout  the  state. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  picture  in  our  minds  a  plan  of  extension 
service  based  on  the  developing  conditions  as  here  stated.  The  State 
Extension  Service  will  continue  to  reach  out  over  the  state,  through 
the  county  farm  advisers,  who  will  in  the  future  more  than  in  the 
past  be  county  directors  of  agriculture,  working  for  the  interests  of 
agriculture  through  the  Extension  Service  of  the  University  and 
through  the  Farm  Bureau.  The  Farm  Bureau  will  confine  its  ac- 
tivities to  educational,  promotional,  and  representative  work.  As 
county  director  of  agriculture,  the  farm  adviser  will  devote  his  time 
more  fully  to  the  development  and  organization  of  local  leaders  and 
to  bringing  to  his  people  the  services  of  specialists  along  all  lines. 

The  State  Extension  Service  will  provide  more  and  more  spec- 
ialists along  all  lines  affecting  farm  work  and  farm  life,  and  will  de- 
vote considerable  necessary  attention  to  maintaining  the  organization 
necessary  to  successfully  carry  the  work  of  the  specialists  out  through 
the  counties  and  communities  to  the  individual  farm  families. 

The  county  Farm  Bureau  and  the  county  farm  adviser  will  also 
be  the  means  and  the  agents  through  which  the  Extension  Service  will 
operate  to  find  and  to  draw  in  many  new  ideas  and  practises  from  the 
farms,  and  send  them  out  to  thousands  of  other  people  who  are  ready 
to  receive  and  apply  them. 


SOME  NEXT  STEPS  IN  THE  DEVELOPMENT 

OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE  AND 

EXPERIMENT  STATION 

EUGENE  DAVENPORT,  Dean  of  the  College  of  Agriculture 

HE  original  purpose  of  the  Land  Grant  Act  and  its  farseeing 
promoters  was  to  provide  a  suitable  education  for  farmers 
and  "mechanics,"  as  shopmen  were  then  called.  By  a 
"suitable  education"  was  meant  not  only  information  and 
training  in  the  subjects  directly  related  to  agriculture  and 
the  mechanic  arts,  but  also  an  education  in  the  relation  of 
industry  to  other  professions  in  life,  and  of  artisans  to  the  body  politic, 
this  latter  idea  being  specifically  embodied  in  the  phrase,  "without 
excluding  other  scientific  and  classical  studies." 

Instruction  in  the  "other  scientific  and  classical  studies"  proceeded 
successfully  from  the  first,  for  neither  the  subject  matter  nor  the 
method  needed  to  be  different  from  that  adapted  to  the  needs  of  other 
students.  History  has  but  one  meaning  to  humanity,  and  that  mean- 
ing is  the  same  for  the  farmer  and  for  the  philosopher.  The  appeal 
of  literature  is  as  broad  as  the  instincts  of  the  race  and  the  capacities 
of  the  individual  and,  outside  of  those  who  make  literature  a  profes- 
sion, it  is  not  influenced  by  occupation.  The  facts  of  rfature  are  abid- 
ing truths,  and  while  they  may  be  put  to  different  uses  by  different 
people  of  varied  occupations,  yet  there  is  a  vast  body  of  knowledge 
common  to  all  peoples  and  fundamental  to  all  needs. 

Instruction  in  these  fields  of  knowledge,  therefore,  encountered 
no  special  problems  peculiar  to  their  association  with  agriculture,  but 
not  so  much  could  be  said  as  to  the  technical  subjects  bearing  directly 
upon  the  profession  of  farming.  With  the  early  attempts  to  teach 
the  technical  portion  of  an  agricultural  education,  it  became  clearer 
with  every  passing  year  that  farming  had  not  yet  risen  above  the 
status  of  an  art  and  that  an  art  which  depends  for  its  successful  prac- 
tise upon  so  many  and  so  varied  local  conditions  as  does  farming  is 
practically  unteachable  in  college. 

THE  COMING  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

Accordingly,  in  the  late  eighties  the  appeal  was  made  to  Congress 
for  a  supplementary  act  endowing  agricultural  research,  in  order  that 
agencies  might  be  provided  for  the  discovery  of  something  really 
tangible,  to  be  elaborated  into  teaching  form.  So  was  the  Experiment 

.     177 


178  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

Station  established — not  as  an  accessory  but  as  a  foundation  in  this 
newest  attempt  at  education  for  the  practical  professions  of  life.  So  it 
was  that  research  in  agriculture  was  established  in  order  to  make 
successful  teaching  possible,  its  employment  as  a  means  of  advancement 
for  agriculture  in  general  being  a  much  later  development. 

The  broader  view  of  agriculture  as  a  national  industry,  and  the 
use  of  research  for  its  general  advancement,  did  not  occur  to  the 
minds  of  even  the  most  advanced  thinkers  until  about  the  opening  of 
the  present  century,  when  the  findings  of  science  within  the  field  of 
farming  began  to  make  it  clear  that  research  could  do  something  more 
than  explain  to  students  why  certain  practises  are  successful.  For  a 
score  of  years  now  it  has  been  clear  that  investigation  and  experimenta- 
tion, indeed  the  very  broadest  conception  of  research,  is  capable  not 
only  of  explaining  agricultural  practise  but  also  of  rationalizing  it 
and  advancing  it ;  in  other  words,  of  developing  the  business  and  the 
life  of  farming,  not  only  from  the  individual,  but  from  the  commu- 
nity, the  state,  and  even  the  national  point  of  view. 

Stated  in  terms  of  logic,  this  is  the  day  of  the  inductive  method. 
We  are  vastly  concerned  now  about  the  many  major  premises  with 
which  we  are  doing  business.  We  are  not  so  credulous  as  were  our 
ancestors.  We  have  more  tools  to  work  with,  more  tests  of  supposed 
truths,  and  we  realize  more  than  they  could  realize  the  untoward  con- 
sequences of  proceeding  upon  false  or  inadequate  assumptions.  The 
fact  is  that  we  have  only  begun  the  vast  undertaking  of  interrogating 
nature  about  this  matter  of  agriculture,  and  to  stop  now  or  even 
slacken  effort  would  be  of  all  forms  of  folly  the  most  foolish.  If  we 
be  wise,  therefore,  we  shall  continue  to  prosecute  our  inquiries  into 
the  mysteries  of  agriculture  and  its  relations,  linking  close  together 
those  three  manifestations  of  the  same  service — research,  teaching, 
and  extension.  And  in  doing  that  we  shall,  without  abandoning  any 
of  the  old  methods  of  inquiry,  make  use  of  certain  new  tools  of  our 
trade  lying  ready  to  hand  but  hitherto  not  much  employed. 

Chemistry  has  served  us  well;  indeed  until  almost  the  present 
day  it  has  been  about  the  only  science  that  has  been  particularly  fruit- 
ful of  results  along  agricultural  lines.  We  shall  continue  to  use  it, 
and  it  is  no  flight  of  fancy  to  predict  that  what  has  been  found  by  the 
chemist  in  the  past  is  but  a  tithe  of  what  awaits  his  achievement  in  the 
future.  But  we  must  harness  other  agencies — physics,  for  example. 
Undoubtedly  we  feed  the  young  mainly  for  body  building,  but  we  feed 
the  horse  as  we  stoke  the  boiler  or  furnish  gasoline  to  the  motor — 
for  the  energy  that  may  be  developed.  To  be  sure,  the  horse  operates 
his  own  repair  shop  with  highly  skilled  mechanicians,  but  we  keep 


SOME  NEXT  STEPS  179 

him  and  we  feed  him  for  the  power  he  can  exert,  exactly  as  we  keep 
and  feed  the  engine  or  the  motor. 

There  is,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  what  might  be  called  a 
dynamic  element  in  agricultural  science  that  has  been  too  long 
neglected.  We  recognize  this  quantitative  element  in  function  in  the 
different  degrees  of  vitality  in  germinating  seeds;  in  what  is  called 
spirit  or  nervous  energy  in  certain  individual  animals;  in  what  Cope 
called  growth  force  in  individuals  and  in  species  whereby  some  indi- 
viduals outdistance  others  and  some  species  enjoy  a  constantly  accel- 
erated development,  as  in  the  evolution  of  the  modern  horse  from 
a  five-toed  ancestor  about  the  size  of  a  jack  rabbit.  The  same  phe- 
nomenon is  manifested  also  in  the  typical  termination  to  growth  by 
which  an  arm  or  a  leg  stops  growing  at  the  proper  point  while  hair 
and  skin  continue  to  grow  as  Idng  as  life  lasts,  and  regeneration  of 
injured  tissues  is  well-nigh  universal.  These  are  important  questions 
not  yet  touched  by  our  investigators. 

When  physics  shall  have  made  its  contribution  to  agricultural 
research,  we  shall  know  more  than  we  do  now  about  the  tension  of 
films  upon  soil  particles  as  affecting  drainage,  irrigation,  and  trans- 
location,  and  upon  the  fat  globules  of  milk  in  its  relation  to  the 
ripening  of  cream  and  the  churning  of  butter.  We  shall  then  be 
enlightened  about  those  vast  and  complicated  transformations  of 
energy  that  accompany  the  tearing  down  of  the  structure  of  our  foods 
and  the  building  up  of  those  complicated  compounds  on  which  animal 
and  human  activity  depend.  Then  we  shall  no  longer  begin  our 
chapters  on  nutrition  by  the  absurd  statement  that  the  first  object  of 
feeding  is  to  "keep  up  the  body  temperature,"  which  is  a  resultant, 
not  a  prerequisite  of  physiological  activity. 

The  biological  sciences  lie  at  the  base  of  agricultural  production, 
but  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  until  a  very  recent  date  their 
contribution  has  been  slight  outside  the  fields  of  breeding  and  of 
communicable  disease. 

For  example,  it  did  not  help  the  farmer  much  to  be  told  that  what 
he  has  all  along  called  wheat  is  really  Triticum  sativum.  He  was 
ready  enough  to  believe  it,  but  what  earthly  use  could  he  make  of 
this  strictly  botanical  information  evolved  for  classification  purposes? 
It  helped  him  but  little  more  to  be  told  that  the  berry  is  really  a 
fruit,  tho  it  was  news  indeed  because  from  boyhood  up  he  had  asso- 
ciated fruits  with  things  juicy  and  good  to  eat  out  of  hand.  And  so 
it  was  that  "glumes"  and  "culms"  and  "inflorescence"  went  into 
the  intellectual  scrap  bag  along  with  "plumule,"  "embryo,"  and 


180  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

"radiolaria,"  as  interesting  but  not  valuable  agricultural  information 
coming  out  of  the  biological  era  given  mainly  to  classification. 

But  as  botany  and  zoology  emerged  from  a  study  of  form  to  a 
consideration  of  structure  and  finally  of  function,  then  it  was  that 
the  biological  sciences  began  to  vitalize  agriculture  almost  exactly 
in  proportion  as  they  vitalized  themselves. 

And  now  at  last  we  are  at  the  threshold  of  a  scientific  study  of 
that  wilderness  of  function  that  we  call  physiology.  It  is  that  form 
of  science  which  studies  systematically  what  living  things  do  as  well 
as  how  they  are  constructed.  It  studies  them  alive  and  in  action 
rather  than  depending,  as  we  have  too  much  depended,  upon  killing 
the  thing  in  order  to  count  its  bones. 

So  is  physiology  at  last  coming  into  its  own  after  a  generation  or 
two  of  practical  neglect,  while  scientists  largely  have  been  following 
the  lead  of  chemistry  or  have  switched  off  into  one  of  the  by-roads 
known  as  evolution,  plant  breeding,  genetics,  or  the  study  of  diseases 
and  their  control.  These  subjects  are  all  exceedingly  useful  but  they 
are  all  branches  of  the  main  stem,  which  concerns  itself  with  the  way 
in  which  living  things  perform  their  normal  functions  day  by  day  and 
the  conditions  necessary  to  successful  growth — which,  after  all,  is 
our  principal  agricultural  problem,  especially  in  crop  production. 

The  successful  growth  of  crops  depends  much  upon  new  and 
better  varieties,  especially  those  that  are  resistant  to  disease;  but  it 
depends  even  more  upon  a  better  knowledge  of  the  sensitive  periods 
of  each  particular  species  and  the  attending  conditions  of  soil  and 
climate  best  suited  to  its  production.  Valuable  as  are  the  vitamines, 
important  as  is  the  rule  of  the  amino  acids,  there  is  yet  even  greater 
significance  in  those  vital  activities  which  do  not  lend  themselves  to 
chemical  analysis  but  must  be  studied  by  direct  methods  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  animal  or  the  plant  at  work  and  discharging  its  normal 
function. 

THE  CONTRIBUTION  FROM  ECONOMICS 

Slowly,  haltingly,  almost  apologetically,  has  the  great  science  of 
economics  at  last  been  recognized  as  able  to  contribute  something  to 
agricultural  advancement. 

Agriculture  as  a  great  productive  industry  has  always  figured 
large  in  the  accounting  of  the  economist.  In  peace  it  is  one  of  the 
basic  industries,  whether  considered  as  a  source  of  wealth  or  as  a 
reliable  element  in  commerce  and  the  balance  of  trade.  In  war  it 
often  turns  the  tide  of  battle,  and  as  history  abundantly  demonstrates, 
it  is  the  products  of  the  land  that  decide  the  final  fate  of  nations. 


SOME  NEXT  STEPS  181 

Agriculture,  therefore,  has  always  been  recognized  as  of  high 
economic,  social,  and  political  consequence.  But  with  few  exceptions 
the  economist,  like  the  physicist,  has  pretty  much  let  agriculture  alone 
as  a  subject  of  study  for  its  own  sake.  As  a  consequence,  this  great 
industry  has  not  much  profited  by  the  intelligent  application  of  well- 
known  economic  principles,  nor  have  farmers  as  a  class  much  en- 
joyed the  benefits  of  instruction  in  economic  theory  and  the  well- 
known  facts  of  broad  human  experiences  in  business  relations. 

The  result  has  been  that  while  here  and  there  a  few  among  the 
many  students  of  agriculture  have  done  the  best  they  could  in  a 
pioneer  manner,  in  acquiring  in  a  kind  of  second-hand  and  rather 
belated  fashion  something  of  a  knowledge  of  economics  as  a  kind  of 
top  graft  upon  a  technical  training  in  agronomy,  horticulture,  animal 
husbandry,  or  what  not;  yet  the.  world  awaits  a  generation  of  men 
trained  from  the  bottom  up  in  the  application  of  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  economics  to  the  serious  business  of  farming  and  its  relation 
to  the  world  of  commerce  and  finance,  in  which  it  forms  so  large 
a  part  and  upon  which  the  prosperity  of  the  farmer  so  largely  depends. 
We  need  new  agricultural  specialists  trained  to  think  in  terms  of 
economics. 

One  of  the  results  of  these  coming  economic  studies  will  be  a 
clearer  conception  on  the  part  of  the  public  of  the  difference  between 
agriculture  as  a  great  national  industry  and  farming  as  an  individual 
occupation.  As  a  national  industry,  it  ranks  with  other  great  produc- 
ing enterprises,  and  the  value  and  variety  of  the  product  is  the  thing 
in  mind.  As  an  individual  occupation,  it  is  intensely  human. 

From  the  individual  point  of  view,  agriculture  is  different  from 
other  producing  industries  in  three  essential  respects : 

First:  The  unit  is  exceedingly  small  and  the  turnover  slow  as 
compared  with  the  managerial  ability  required  and  the  capital  invested. 

Second:  To  the  individual  and  his  family,  farming  is  a  mode 
of  life  as  well  as  a  business,  because  the  home  is  intimately  involved 
with  the  producing  plant. 

Third :  In  general,  the  occupancy  of  the  land  changes  about  once 
every  twenty  years  and  much  more  rapidly  than  the  ownership.  That 
is  to  say,  the  life  of  the  farmer  is  much  shorter  than  the  life  of  the 
citizen,  and  this  involves  difficult  questions  of  ownership. 

Because  these  things  are  so,  an  agriculture  may  be  very  prosperous 
to  the  country  at  large  while  very  unprosperous,  even  oppressive,  to 
a  very  large  share  of  the  citizens  engaged  in  actual  production.  This 
is  what  has  given  rise  to  the  recent  demands  for  better  credit  systems, 


182  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

by  which  is  meant  systems  which  individual  farmers  can  use ;  and  it 
requires  no  prophet's  vision  to  predict  that  one  of  the  chief  concerns 
of  a  thinking  public  in  this  country  is  to  provide  ways  for  retaining 
upon  the  land  the  largest  possible  proportion  of  home-owning  and 
home-building  citizens. 

This  is  a  task  never  yet  successfully  performed  by  any  country; 
and  it  is  the  chief  problem  concerning  a  self-governing  people,  because 
agriculture  is  about  the  only  remaining  industry  engaging  the  atten- 
tion of  large  numbers  of  people  in  which  the  individual  is  necessarily 
an  enterpriser  and  in  which  all  the  family  can  take  part :  which  is  only 
another  way  of  saying  that  it  is  the  only  occupation  involving  large 
numbers,  which,  by  its  nature,  breeds  resourcefulness  and  individual 
independence.  These  matters  must  all  enter  into  and  characterize 
the  coming  task  of  the  College  and  Station. 

The  greatest  immediate  menace  to  agricultural  welfare  and  to 
the  proper  development  of  any  state  is  a  growing  degree  of  irresponsi- 
ble tenantry  in  which  the  owner  and  the  tenant  conspire  to  operate 
the  farm  for  immediate  results  at  the  expense  both  of  fertility  and  of 
typical  American  country  life.  This  is  the  impending  danger  to  the 
future  of  Illinois,  and  adequate  plans  for  transferring  ownership  of 
farm  homes  from  one  generation  to  the  next  by  a  proper  system  of 
long-term  credits  is  one  of  the  chief  problems  of  the  commonwealth. 
This,  too,  calls  for  scientific  investigation  and  treatment. 

The  fact  must  not  be  overlooked,  at  a  time  like  this,  that  a  great 
struggle  is  developing  the  world  over  between  the  country  and  the 
town.  This  struggle  arises  from  the  fact  that  while  the  farmer  works 
for  what  the  economist  calls  "goods," — corn,  wheat,  horses,  cattle, 
hogs, — the  city  works  for  money,  the  capitalist  for  profit,  and  the 
laborer  for  what  he  calls  a  living.  One  consequence  is  to  unduly 
exalt  capital  in  city  enterprise,  and  another  is  to  lead  the  laborer  to 
abandon  ideas  of  thrift  and  to  adopt  instead  measures  designed  to 
secure  the  best  living  obtainable  with  the  least  exertion  possible,  often 
without  regard  to  consequences.  This  false  economy  is  pushed  often 
to  the  point  of  systematic  reduction  of  the  results  of  labor  in  order 
to  compel  the  work  to  provide  as  much  employment  as  possible. 
Because  of  these  conditions  and  because  of  a  prevailing  confusion 
as  between  money  and  goods,  the  whole  machinery  of  city  enterprise 
operates  to  inordinately  increase  the  cost  of  standard  necessary  com- 
modities, not  only  to  the  world  at  large  but  also  and  necessarily  to  the 
laborer  himself.  This  is  one  prime  cause  of  the  gulf  that  is  forming 
between  the  country  and  the  town.  Such  a  system  is  of  course  bound 


SOME  NEXT  STEPS  183 

to  break  down  some  time,  because  the  world  lives  upon  goods  and 
not  upon  money.  It  has  already  broken  down  in  unhappy  Russia, 
and  we  have  before  us  there  a  concrete  example  of  the  way  in  which 
such  a  system  will  finally  return  its  people  to  the  land  for  the  means 
of  bare  subsistence. 

Now  to  a  people  in  this  desperate  condition  it  would  be  good 
bolshevism  to  nationalize  the  land  and  regard  it  solely  as  a  means 
of  producing  the  cheapest  possible  food,  regardless  of  the  home  life 
it  might  and  ought  to  support.  We  even  had  a  beginning  of  this  idea 
in  our  own  country  lately  when  a  bill  was  proposed  in  Congress  for 
taxing  the  land  for  the  relief  of  unemployment.  Any  movement  in 
this  direction  will  not  only  destroy  agriculture  as  a  home-making 
occupation  but  it  will  remove  from  the  people  the  highest  incentive 
to  labor.  A  man  will  work  for  nothing  as  he  will  work  for  a  home 
to  shelter  his  wife  and  little  ones.  He  will  work  for  this  as  he  will 
not  work  even  for  life  itself,  and  the  home-building  incentive  in  this 
country  must  be  preserved  to  the  utmost  if  we  would  remain  a  free 
and  prosperous  people.  It  is  to  matters  of  such  far-reaching  import 
as  these  that  our  economic  studies  in  colleges  and  experiment  stations 
must  be  directed,  as  well  as  to  the  problems  of  the  individual  farmer. 

Another  cause  of  the  gulf  that  is  forming  between  the  country 
and  the  town  lies  in  the  field  of  credit,  and  it  arises  from  the  fact 
that  many  capitalists  fail  to  appreciate  the  financial  side  of  farming. 
The  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce^  for  example,  opposes  all  plans 
for  long-term  credit  to  farmers  upon  the  ground  of  its  undue  absorp- 
tion of  capital.  Under  date  of  December  30,  this  Journal  expresses 
itself  editorially  as  follows: 

"The  credit  supply  of  this  country  is  not  something  to  be  dis- 
tributed by  'sections'  or  'interests.'  .  .  .  It  is  the  joint  possession  of 
the  community  to  be  cautiously  and  soundly  used  for  the  benefit  and 
the  assistance  of  all  and  to  be  distributed  to  those  who  are  in  position 
not  only  to  employ  it  for  sound  and  economic  purposes  but  to  return 
it  intact  when  they  agree  to  do  so.  This  pledge  cannot  be  complied 
with  by  those  who  wish  to  use  their  borrowings  for  making  long- 
time investments,  or  in  the  carrying  of  agricultural  products  on 
speculation." 

Repeatedly  since  that  date  this  journal  has  given  voice  in  one 
form  or  another  to  the  same  contention,  entirely  ignoring  the  fact 
that  upon  other  pages  of  the  same  issue  appear  advertisements  for 
and  records  of  transactions  in  municipal  and  industrial  bonds  running 
to  periods  as  remote  as  1998  and  all  possible  dates  between.  Agri- 


184  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

culture  has  never  asked  for  long-time  credit  beyond  a  period  of 
thirty-three  years,  but  New  York  City  bonds  are  handled  in  the  mar- 
kets today  as  gilt-edged  securities  and  with  entire  approval  tho  ab- 
sorbing credit  for  more  than  seventy-five  years  ahead. 

Of  course  the  individual  farmer  is  unable  to  negotiate  a  paper 
that  is  bankable  and  convertible  into  liquid  credit.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  individual  citizen  of  New  York  or  any  other  city.  But  col- 
lectively both  parties  are  able  to  execute  securities  which  are  easily 
marketable,  as  experience  shows,  to  equal  advantage.  The  bonds  of 
the  Land  Bank  are  now  selling  in  open  market  at  102,  I  believe,  and 
it  does  not  appear  that  either  these  or  long-term  bonds  of  any  kind 
absorb  capital  in  the  sense  of  destroying  its  usefulness. 

The  contention  of  our  foremost  commercial  journal  is  manifestly 
unsound  in  this  matter,  not  only  as  to  the  facts  of  the  case  but  also 
as  to  the  equities;  for  every  intelligent  man  who  is  fully  informed 
knows  that  agriculture  has  done  its  full  share  in  producing  the  capital 
of  the  country  upon  which  credit  rests,  and  every  fair-minded  man 
will  agree  that  it  is  entitled  in  equal  proportion  to  the  enjoyment  of 
its  credit  needs.  From  every  point  of  view,  the  city  man  has  much 
to  do  in  closing  up  the  gap  between  the  country  and  the  town,  both 
in  the  field  of  production  and  in  the  handling  of  capital ;  and  he  can- 
not relegate  to  himself  either  the  standards  of  production  or  the  ex- 
clusive use  of  the  capital  which  everybody  has  helped  to  produce. 

It  is  contentions  like  those  quoted  from  the  foremost  commercial 
journal  that  tend  powerfully  to  the  creation  of  an  agricultural  bloc, 
not  only  in  Congress  but  among  thinking  farmers  everywhere,  con- 
siderable numbers  of  whom  are  coming  to  have  not  a  little  knowledge 
of  the  principles  governing  the  business  activities  of  a  civilized  people. 
For  the  good  of  all,  this  gulf  between  the  country  and  the  town  must 
be  filled  up  or  bridged  over ;  and  the  farmer,  the  business  man,  and 
the  laborer  must  each  do  his  share  in  so  necessary  a  service. 

From  every  point  of  view  here  in  the  exploration  of  a  field 
hitherto  considered  as  exclusively  commercial,  lies  great  work  for  our 
agricultural  colleges,  not  only  for  the  further  enlightenment  of  farm- 
ing but  for  the  enlightenment  of  other  professions  as  well. 

THE  OUTLOOK 

We  are  to  have  a  new  agriculture,  if  not  indeed  a  new  civiliza- 
tion, in  the  Middle  West.  In  the  immediate  future  Chicago  will  be 
an  ocean  port.  We  shall  not  always  ship  our  coal  and  our  wool  and 


SOME  NEXT  STEPS  185 

our  cotton  to  the  extreme  northeast  corner  of  the  United  States  for 
manufacture,  then  ship  the  product  back  again  to  the  center  of  popula- 
tion, which  even  now  is  just  across  the  Indiana  line.  The  Middle 
West  will  not  always  buy  its  steel  at  "Pittsburgh  plus"  when  most  of 
the  ore  comes  from  Minnesota  and  down  the  lakes  to  Gary  and  Joliet. 

Dr.  Burrill  of  blessed  memory  used  to  speak  of  Illinois  as  an 
imperial  state.  And  such  it  is,  for  it  lies  at  the  very  center  of  the 
greatest  agricultural  region  of  the  earth,  when  land  and  climate  and 
people  and  possibilities  are  all  considered. 

She  has  a  people  unexcelled ;  she  has  a  soil  capable  of  supporting 
an  immense  population,  with  coal  everywhere  just  under  the  feet.  A 
rolling  surface  presents  no  obstacles  to  land  transportation ;  and  with 
open  waterways  both  to  the  Atlantic  and  to  the  western  coast  of 
South  America,  the  advantages  of  these  natural  conditions  are  obvious. 
A  boat  sailing  from  Chicago  is  halfway  across  the  Atlantic  when 
it  emerges  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  line  is  almost 
direct  from  Chicago  and  St.  Louis  through  the  Panama  Canal  to 
the  west  coast  of  South  America,  a  continent  which  lies  almost 
entirely  east  of  Buffalo.  If  the  upper  Mississippi  valley,  therefore, 
is  at  all  alive  to  its  possibilities,  we  shall  see  in  the  immediate  future 
a  new  agriculture,  if  not  a  new  civilization,  centering  in  Illinois, 
which  will  then  become  not  only  the  agricultural  but  also  possibly 
the  industrial  and  commercial  center  of  the  world.  It  does  not  re- 
quire the  vision  of  a  prophet  to  foresee  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Val- 
ley a  teeming  population  given  to  manufacture  and  trade  and  sup- 
ported and  fed  by  an  intelligent  and  a  prosperous  farming  constituency. 

The  first  steps  have  been  taken  in  finding  ways  to  make  our 
agriculture  permanent  and  also  comfortable.  To  make  it  profitable 
we  must  prosecute  assiduously  our  scientific  and  economic  studies,  in 
order  to  furnish  the  facts  upon  which  our  leaders  must  depend  for 
successful  practise.  To  make  agriculture  comfortable  we  must  as 
soon  as  possible  enter  upon  an  era  of  building  permanent  farm  homes, 
equipping  them  with  modern  conveniences,  and  surrounding  them  with 
every  feasible  form  of  outdoor  beauty — real  homes  where  typical 
American  children  can  be  born  and  nourished,  drinking  in  with  every 
breath  the  spirit  of  a  free  and  a  prosperous,  self-governing  and  self- 
directing  civilization. 

In  all  this  development  the  University  can  be  especially  helpful, 
particularly  because  of  the  fact  that  the  separate  units  are  in  general 
too  small  to  engage  the  interest  of  professional  architects  and  landscape 
gardeners.  It  can  do  much  by  way  of  inventing  and  disseminating 


186  UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

appropriate  designs  for  the  farmstead  and  its  plantings  and  for  the 
treatment  of  our  rapidly  improving  highways,  and  then  in  arousing 
public  interest  in  outdoor  art.  Illinois  must  be  something  besides  an 
endless  stretch  of  fields  bare  and  brown  for  a  third  or  a  half  of  the 
year;  it  must  develop  into  an  harmonious  landscape  busy  in  produc- 
tion but  restful  to  the  eye  and  inspiring  to  the  soul.  Her  highways 
must  be  something  more  than  stone  speedways;  they  can  be,  indeed 
must  be,  avenues  of  beauty  connecting  counties  and  leading  to  great 
population  centers  by  parks  of  pleasantness. 

Yes,  we  are  to  have  a  new  agriculture  in  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
Shall  it  be  better  or  worse  than  the  one  our  pioneer  fathers  ham- 
mered out  from  the  wilderness  and  slowly  evolved  from  the  prairie 
and  the  slough  ?  That  is  for  us  to  say,  for  what  this  new  agriculture 
shall  be  like  and  what  shall  be  the  character  of  the  civilization  of 
which  it  will  be  a  part  will  depend  very  much  indeed  upon  the  vision 
possessed  by  our  farmers  now  and  in  the  immediate  future.  It  will 
depend  also  upon  the  degree  of  understanding  and  of  cooperation 
which  can  be  maintained  between  thinking  citizens,  who  must  take 
the  lead,  and  the  University,  which  is  the  public  agent  for  investigat- 
ing the  knotty  problems  continually  arising  in  a  rapidly  developing 
civilization. 

The  great  question  is:  Shall  a  state  like  Illinois  drift  into  its 
new  development,  accepting  what  the  accidental  fates  deal  out,  or 
shall  we,  by  taking  thought,  control  and  direct  this  development  to 
some  definite  ends  ?  By  taking  thought  early  and  constantly,  the  citi- 
zens can  make  this  development  almost  what  they  will.  What  we 
shall  be  later  on  will  be  the  result,  not  of  revolution,  but  of  evolution 
from  what  we  now  are  to  what  we  then  shall  be.  The  future  of 
Illinois  is  in  her  own  hands  and  there  is  no  limit  to  what  may  be 
achieved,  provided  only  that  she  will  support,  as  she  has  begun  to 
support,  generously  the  agencies  for  progress,  and  provided  the  Uni- 
versity will  remember,  as  it  always  has  remembered,  that  in  all  real 
development  it  is  the  thinking  citizen  and  not  his  institutions  that 
must  take  the  lead. 


THE  PROGRAM 
OF  THE  CONFERENCE 


PROGRAM 


Agricultural  Conference 

University  of  Illinois 


JANUARY  26-27 
1922 


URBANA,  ILLINOIS 


agriculture  of  the  state  is  not  standing  still. 
Without  intelligent  direction,  it  will  drift  and 
her  people  become  the  sport  of  circumstance. 
With  early  foresight  and  reasonable  attention  to 
desirable  ends,  we  may  with  confidence  look  for- 
ward to  an  agricultural  development  that  will  add 
enormously  to  the  wealth  of  the  state  and  to  the 
welfare  of  her  people. 

Any  program  of  development  must  be  based 
upon  an  appreciation  of  what  has  been  already 
accomplished  and  a  vision  of  possibilities  that  lie 
just  ahead.  It  is  to  encourage  interest  in  such  a 
program  that  this  first  Agricultural  Conference  at 
the  University  has  been  called. 


190 


Thursday  Morning 

January  26 

8:30 

A  QUARTER-CENTURY  OF  AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS 
IN  ILLINOIS:  A  REVIEW  OF  ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

MR.  FRANK  I.  MANN,  President  of  the  Illinois  Farmers'  Institute,  presiding. 

Greeting 

EUGENE  DAVENPORT,  Dean  of  College  of  Agriculture 

A  System  of  Permanent  Agriculture 

RALPH  ALLEN,  Delavan 

Developments  in  the  Dairy  Industry 

N.  W.  HEPBURN,  Peoria 

Developments  in  Horticulture 

J.  C.  BLAIR,  Professor  of  Horticulture 

The  Work  of  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 

L.  H.  SMITH,  Chief  in  Charge  of  Publications  of  the  Soil  Survey 

The  Work  of  the  College  of  Agriculture 

FRED  H.  RANKIN,  Superintendent  Agricultural  College  Extension 


191 


Thursday  Afternoon 
1:30 

NEWER  PHASES  OF  AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS 

HONORABLE  B.  M.  DAVISON,  Director  State  Department  of 
.  Agriculture,  presiding 

Newer  Problems  in  Soil  Treatment 

FRANK  I.  MANN,  Oilman 

Business  Aspects  of  Farming 

CHARLES  A.  EWING,  Decatur 

The  Farm  Bureau 

E.  T.  ROBBINS,  Farm  Adviser  DeWitt  County 

The  Illinois  Agricultural  Association 

D.  O.  THOMPSON,  Secretary,  Chicago 

An  International  Crop  Reporting  Service 

H.  J.  SCONCE,  U.  S.  Delegate  to  the  International  Institute  of 
Agriculture  at  Rome,  Sidell 

Financing  Farming 

J.  D.  PHILLIPS,  Chairman  of  the  Special  Committee  on  Farm  Finance, 
State  Division  American  Bankers  Association,  Green  Valley 


192 


Thursday  Evening 
7:30 

AGRICULTURE  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  OTHER 

INTERESTS 
DEAN  EUGENE  DAVENPORT,  presiding 

The  Business  of  Farming  in  Some  of  Its  Larger  Aspects 
DR.  THOMAS  NIXON  CARVER,  Harvard  University 

The  University  and  the  Farm 

DR.  DAVID  KINLEY,  President  of  the  University  of  Illinois 


193 


Friday  Morning 

January  27 

8:30 

NEXT  STEPS  IN  AGRICULTURAL  DEVELOPMENT  IN 
ILLINOIS:    A  PROGRAM  FOR  A  BETTER  BAL- 
ANCED AGRICULTURE 

MR.  CHARLES  A.  EWING,  Decatur,  presiding 

The  Introduction  of  New  Crops 

C.  L.  MEHARRY,  Attica,  Indiana 

Farm  Forestry  in  Illinois 

A.  N.  ABDOTT,  Morrison 

Can  Illinois  Come  Back  as  a  Stock  Breeding  Ground? 
W.  S.  CORSA,  White  Hall 

The  Outlook  for  Live  Stock  in  Illinois  Agriculture 

H.  W.  MUMFORD,  Professor  of  Animal  Husbandry,  and  Director  of 
Live  Stock  Marketing,  Illinois  Agricultural  Association 

Roadside  Improvement 

W.  N.  RUDD,  Blue  Island 

The  Country  Home 

J.  V.  STEVENSON,  Streator 

Discussion 


194 


Friday  Afternoon 
1:30 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  AGRICULTURAL  COLLEGE  AND 
EXPERIMENT    STATION    IN    AN  ILLINOIS  PRO- 
GRAM FOR  AGRICULTURAL  DEVELOPMENT 

DR.  DAVID  KINLEY,  President  University  of  Illinois,  presiding 

Physiological  Bases  of  Crop  Production 

W.  L.  BURLISON,  Professor  of  Crop  Production 

Economic  Phases  of  Farming 

W.  F.  HANDSCHINJ  Professor  of  Farm  Organization  and  Management 

The  Agricultural  Extension  Service 

M.  L.  MOSHER,  President  National  Association  of  Farm  Advisers,  Eureka 

Some  Next  Steps  in  the  Work  of  the  Agricultural  College  and  Ex- 
periment Station 

EUGENE  DAVENPORT 
Discussion 


195 


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